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Why the Market Dipped But Astrazeneca (AZN) Gained Today

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Astrazeneca (AZN - Free Report) closed at $68.78 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.67% move from the prior day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.34%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.03%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.56%.

Shares of the pharmaceutical witnessed a gain of 7.44% over the previous month, beating the performance of the Medical sector with its gain of 5.72% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.56%.

The upcoming earnings release of Astrazeneca will be of great interest to investors. The company is forecasted to report an EPS of $0.75, showcasing an 8.7% upward movement from the corresponding quarter of the prior year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $12.09 billion, showing a 7.88% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.

Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Astrazeneca. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To capitalize on this, we've crafted the Zacks Rank, a unique model that incorporates these estimate changes and offers a practical rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.12% lower. Astrazeneca is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

In terms of valuation, Astrazeneca is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 16.37. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 14.37.

We can also see that AZN currently has a PEG ratio of 1.23. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. As the market closed yesterday, the Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry was having an average PEG ratio of 1.9.

The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 158, putting it in the bottom 38% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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