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Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

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Alexion Pharmaceuticals closed at $82.50 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.17% move from the prior day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 5.18%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 6.3%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 4.7%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the drugmaker had lost 19.38% over the past month. This has lagged the Medical sector's loss of 18.36% and was narrower than the S&P 500's loss of 24.68% in that time.

ALXN will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect ALXN to post earnings of $2.71 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 13.39%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $1.35 billion, up 18.66% from the year-ago period.

ALXN's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $11.05 per share and revenue of $5.63 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +4.94% and +12.71%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for ALXN. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. ALXN currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, ALXN is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 7.45. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 23.84.

It is also worth noting that ALXN currently has a PEG ratio of 0.59. 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 Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.57 as of yesterday's close.

The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 77, putting it in the top 31% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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