Astrazeneca (AZN) ended the recent trading session at $76.21, demonstrating a +0.74% swing from the preceding day's closing price. The stock's change was less than the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.59%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1.39%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.63%.

Heading into today, shares of the pharmaceutical had gained 6.19% over the past month, outpacing the Medical sector's loss of 0.63% and the S&P 500's loss of 2.42% in that time.

Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Astrazeneca in its upcoming release. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $1.09, reflecting a 5.83% increase from the same quarter last year. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $13.58 billion, reflecting a 7.07% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.

AZN's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $4.52 per share and revenue of $56.98 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +9.98% and +5.37%, respectively.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Astrazeneca. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed a 3.11% decrease. Astrazeneca is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Looking at valuation, Astrazeneca is presently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 16.75. This indicates a discount in contrast to its industry's Forward P/E of 21.57.

It's also important to note that AZN currently trades at a PEG ratio of 1.45. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The average PEG ratio for the Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry stood at 1.49 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 72, putting it in the top 29% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank evaluates the power of our distinct industry groups by determining the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks forming the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming 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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