The latest trading session saw Astrazeneca (AZN) ending at $77.47, denoting a -0.63% adjustment from its last day's close. The stock outperformed the S&P 500, which registered a daily loss of 1.78%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw a downswing of 0.99%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq depreciated by 2.61%.

Shares of the pharmaceutical witnessed a gain of 9.9% over the previous month, beating the performance of the Medical sector with its gain of 0.26% and the S&P 500's loss of 3.48%.

The upcoming earnings release of Astrazeneca will be of great interest to investors. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $1.10, reflecting a 6.8% increase from the same quarter last year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $13.6 billion, showing a 7.3% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $4.49 per share and a revenue of $57.14 billion, demonstrating changes of +9.25% and +5.67%, respectively, from the preceding year.

Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Astrazeneca. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, spanning from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), boasts an impressive track record of outperformance, audited externally, with #1 ranked stocks yielding an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 3.68% lower within the past month. Astrazeneca is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

From a valuation perspective, Astrazeneca is currently exchanging hands at a Forward P/E ratio of 17.36. This signifies a discount in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 19.4 for its industry.

It is also worth noting that AZN currently has a PEG ratio of 1.5. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. The average PEG ratio for the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry stood at 1.57 at the close of the market yesterday.

The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 66, putting it in the top 27% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.

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AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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