Astrazeneca (AZN) Stock Moves -0.23%: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Astrazeneca (AZN) closed at $56.31, marking a -0.23% move from the previous day. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's 0.84% loss on the day. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.36%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.15%.

Coming into today, shares of the pharmaceutical had lost 16.56% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector lost 7.73%, while the S&P 500 lost 10.24%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Astrazeneca as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect Astrazeneca to post earnings of $0.75 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 38.89%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $10.73 billion, up 8.73% from the prior-year quarter.

AZN's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $3.31 per share and revenue of $44.04 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +24.91% and +17.7%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Astrazeneca should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. 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 17.06. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 12.16.

Also, we should mention that AZN has a PEG ratio of 1.09. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. Large Cap Pharmaceuticals stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.77 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 76, which puts it in the top 31% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order 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.

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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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.