AstraZeneca (AZN) Stock Up After Q2 Earnings, Revenue Beat
AstraZeneca (AZN) stock is increasing this afternoon after the company reported better-than-expected results before today's market open.
Annie Palmer
Jul 28, 2016 2:13 PM EDT
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of AstraZeneca (AZN) - Get Report are jumping 7.83% to $34.01 in afternoon trading today after the biopharmaceutical company posted better-than-expected results for the second quarter before today's market open.
The company reported earnings of 83 cents per share, beating analysts estimates of 76 cents per share. Revenue came in at $5.6 billion, above analysts' projected $5.56 billion.
Last year, AstraZeneca posted earnings of 60 cents per share on revenue of $6.31 billion.
Revenue fell 3% year-over-year in the second quarter, stemming from a 2% decline in product sales due to patent expiries such as Crestor, the company said.
Additionally, the company declined to say whether it may be a possible takeover target, Reuters reports. Novartis (NVS) has been rumored as a buyer, which could increase AstraZeneca's cancer drug operations and potential savings, according to Reuters.
Citi analysts believe AstraZeneca's biotech expertise and advanced immunotherapy cancer pipeline could make the company an attractive purchase for Novartis, Reuters reports.
Full-year guidance remains unchanged with total revenue expected to decline by a low to mid-single digit percentage point, AstraZeneca added.
Separately, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author. TheStreet Ratings has this to say about the recommendation:
We rate ASTRAZENECA PLC as a Buy with a ratings score of B-. This is driven by multiple strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its impressive record of earnings per share growth, compelling growth in net income, notable return on equity, reasonable valuation levels and good cash flow from operations. We feel its strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally high debt management risk by most measures that we evaluated.
You can view the full analysis from the report here: AZN
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