Astrazeneca stock: buy or sell?
Updated on:
November 15th, 2019
5
AstraZeneca PLC develops, manufactures, and commercializes prescription medicines for the treatment of oncology, cardiovascular and metabolic, respiratory, infection, gastrointestinal, and neuroscience diseases worldwide.
Should I buy Astrazeneca stock?
Trading stocks requires experience and discipline, and your buying and selling decisions must come following a methodology. That's why is so important to define your own trading strategy that fits your character as inversor. At Stocks2.com, we use very simple but trusted and powerful trend following trading strategies. Simple things usually work the best.None of our preferred buy setups matches with Astrazeneca stock situation right now, hence this is not a suitable entry point.
| Buy setup | Elegible |
|---|---|
| New all-time high | No |
| New 52 week high | No |
| Price crossing up 200d MA | No |
| 100d MA crossing up 200d MA | No |
Is Astrazeneca stock a buy?
Financial institutions and banks post stock ratings everyday.
At Stocks2.com, we detected 15 ratings published for AZN stock in the last 30 days. The general sentiment of these ratings is bullish for AZN stock, with 10 positive ratings.| Date | Analyst / Broker | Previous rating | Current rating |
| 2019-9-30 | UBS Group | n/a | Sell |
| 2019-9-30 | Shore Capital | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-9-30 | Jefferies Financial Group | n/a | Neutral |
| 2019-9-30 | Deutsche Bank | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-9-3 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-9-3 | DZ Bank | Hold | Sell |
| 2019-9-23 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-9-20 | Liberum Capital | n/a | Hold |
| 2019-9-2 | Goldman Sachs Group | n/a | Sell |
| 2019-9-2 | Deutsche Bank | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-9-2 | Deutsche Bank | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-9-18 | Shore Capital | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-9-16 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | n/a | Overweight |
| 2019-9-13 | Barclays | n/a | Overweight |
| 2019-9-13 | Bank of America | n/a | Buy |
Astrazeneca stock analysis
Daily outlook
Astrazeneca shares remained constant 0.15% to $47.44 yesterday.
Astrazeneca shares remained constant 0.15% to $47.44 yesterday. Since SMA50d and SMA100d crossed up on July, AZN price climbed $3.50 per share (7.97%). Since October/23 when AZN stock price broke up the SMA50d line, it gained $3.52 (8.01%). On Nov/1, AZN hit a new all time high, pushing higher than on Oct/31 tops. Check different trading setups that use ATHs as triggers.
Weekly outlook
Shares of Astrazeneca ended this week at $47.44 and stayed stable a slightly good 0.38%. Late October AZN skyrocketed an outstanding 7.97% in just one week.
In a weekly time frame, Astrazeneca stock is drawing an uptrend with rising tops and bottoms. Now trading in between its last bottom and last top, AZN might consolidate in a flat-base, waiting to break out over or down under . Not so far away is the last all-time high Astrazeneca marked late October. Early June AZN price bounced up over the SMA of 40 weeks that acted as support stopping new slides. Since late July when SMA10w and SMA20w crossed up, AZN price gained $7.73 per share (19.47%).
Astrazeneca stock price history
Astrazeneca IPO was on May 12th, 1993 at $1.93 per share1. Since then, AZN stock surged a 2,358.00%, with an average of 90.70% per year. If you had invested right after AZN's IPO a $1,000 in Astrazeneca stock in 1993, it would worth $23,580.00 today.
1: Adjusted price after possible price splits or reverse-splits.
Astrazeneca stock historical price chart
AZN stock reached all-time highs on November/1 with a price of $49.22.
Astrazeneca stock price target
How much a stock will be priced tomorrow or next week is quite unpredictable However, financial institutions invest time and resources to provide the most accurated estimations to help investors to make their decisions. You should not follow the analysts' AZN stock price predictions in the hope that they will be met as they may be wrong and not met. For the last 30 days we have not detected any price target for Astrazeneca stock by any trusted analyst.Financials and fundamental analysis
Earnings date and Earnings per Share
Astrazeneca reported dazzling results for 2018-Q4 on February. Astrazeneca boosted Earnings per Share (EPS) by 116.40%, beating analysts consensus of $0.73. Astrazeneca posted $1.58.| Quarter | Reporting date | Estimated EPS | Actual EPS | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-Q2 | - | n/a | 0.53 | n/a |
| 2017-Q3 | - | n/a | 0.71 | n/a |
| 2017-Q4 | - | n/a | 1 | n/a |
| 2018-Q1 | 2018-05-18 | 0.28 | 0.48 | 71.4% |
| 2018-Q2 | 2018-07-26 | 0.31 | 0.69 | 122.6% |
| 2018-Q3 | 2018-11-08 | 0.33 | 0.71 | 115.2% |
| 2018-Q4 | 2019-02-14 | 0.73 | 1.58 | 116.4% |
| 2019-Q1 | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 2019-Q2 | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 2019-Q3 | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Annual financial results
In 2018, Astrazeneca annual sales depreciated a lame -1.67% to $22,090.00 million USD from $22,465.00 marked in 2017. When comparing 2018 vs 2017, likewise, profit margin (that is, the net income divided by revenues) declined a -3.60% to 9.76%.| Year | Sales | YoY | Income/(margin) | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | $16,450 M | - | $1,640 M10.0% | - |
| 2014 | $26,095 M | 58.63% | $1,233 M4.7% | -24.82% |
| 2015 | $24,708 M | -5.32% | $2,825 M11.4% | 129.12% |
| 2016 | $23,002 M | -6.90% | $3,499 M15.2% | 23.86% |
| 2017 | $22,465 M | -2.33% | $3,001 M13.4% | -14.23% |
| 2018 | $22,090 M | -1.67% | $2,155 M9.8% | -28.19% |
Quarterly financial results
Astrazeneca reported $6,417.00 M in sales for 2018-Q4, a 20.17% improvement compared to previous quarter. Reported quarter earnings marked $1,034.00 M with a profit margin of 16.11%. Profit margin escalated a 8.04% compared to previous quarter when profit margin was 8.07%. When comparing turnover to same quarter last year, Astrazeneca sales marked a superb gain and skyrocketed a 11.08%. Looking back to recent quarterly results, Astrazeneca posted 2 positive quarters in a row.| Quarter | Sales1 | QoQ2 | Income1/(margin) | QoQ2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-Q2 | $3,950 M | - | $373 M9.4% | - |
| 2017-Q3 | $6,232 M | 57.77% | $686 M11.0% | 84.13% |
| 2017-Q4 | $5,777 M | -7.30% | $1,301 M22.5% | 89.65% |
| 2018-Q1 | $5,178 M | -10.37% | $340 M6.6% | -73.87% |
| 2018-Q2 | $5,155 M | -0.44% | $350 M6.8% | 2.94% |
| 2018-Q3 | $5,340 M | 3.59% | $431 M8.1% | 23.14% |
| 2018-Q4 | $6,417 M | 20.17% | $1,034 M16.1% | 139.91% |
| 2019-Q1 | $5,491 M | -14.43% | $593 M10.8% | -42.65% |
Astrazeneca ownership
When you are planning to invest in shares of a company, it's always worth to check its ownership structure.Management staff in all public traded companies that hold equity is required to report every transaction to the SEC. For Astrazeneca, 0.01% of all outstanding shares are owned by its staff.
In case of Astrazeneca stock, 19.37% of its shares are held by institutions (mutual funds, pension funds, big banks and other large financial institutions). Bearish positions for AZN stock account 0.00%, no big difference from last month.
For a better understanding, the following table shows ownership data compared to other related companies:
| AZN | ABT | BIIB | BMY | CELG | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $124.3 B | $151.7 B | $50.9 B | $95.5 B | $78.3 B |
| Total shares | 2,620.0 M | 1,770.0 M | 180.4 M | 1,630.0 M | 711.7 M |
| Float shares | 2,620.0 M | 1,760.0 M | 180.0 M | 1,630.0 M | 709.4 M |
| - Institutional holdings (%) | 19.4% | 76.5% | 93.4% | 75.0% | 77.6% |
| - Insider holdings (%) | 0.0% | 0.7% | 0.5% | 0.1% | 0.2% |
| Shares in short selling | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Astrazeneca summary
| Friday, November 15th, 2019 | |
|---|---|
| Open | $46.83 |
| Close | $47.44 |
| Day range | $46.81 - $47.53 |
| Previous close | $47.37 |
| Session gain | 0.15% |
| Average true range | $0.81 |
| 50d mov avg | $45.14 |
| 100d mov avg | $43.96 |
| 200d mov avg | $41.61 |
| Daily pattern | lt01a |
| Weekly pattern | lt06a |
Astrazeneca performance
To measure stock performance is always good to benchmark with competitors or related stocks. We selected , Biogen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, GlaxoSmithKline, , Eli Lilly and, Merck, Pfizer and as the bechmarking frame for Astrazeneca stock.| Stock | 3m | 6m | 12m |
|---|---|---|---|
| AZNAstrazeneca | 6.99% | 26.88% | 20.56% |
| ABT | 1.50% | 13.70% | 20.96% |
| BIIBBiogen | 21.84% | 23.11% | -12.89% |
| BMYBristol-Myers Squ... | 25.76% | 27.23% | 12.09% |
| CELGCelgene | 16.13% | 15.30% | 57.96% |
| GSKGlaxoSmithKline | 10.92% | 14.28% | 14.79% |
| JNJ | 3.50% | -1.24% | -5.02% |
| LLYEli Lilly and | 3.00% | -1.32% | 1.68% |
| MRKMerck | 0.47% | 9.29% | 14.68% |
| PFEPfizer | 8.62% | -8.38% | -11.13% |
| SNY | 9.73% | 10.05% | 6.51% |
Astrazeneca competitors
One check before trading any stock is to have a look a list of its competitors, in this case for Astrazeneca. We picked 10 companies as Astrazeneca competitors as they are in the same industry or have similar market objectives.- (ABT)
- Biogen (BIIB)
- Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY)
- Celgene (CELG)
- GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)
- (JNJ)
- Eli Lilly and (LLY)
- Merck (MRK)
- Pfizer (PFE)
- (SNY)
Latest Astrazeneca stock news
- Seeking AlphaAstraZeneca Calquence CLL Data Sets It Up For Regulatory Submissions In 2019June 26, 2019
- Seeking AlphaAn FDA Win For AstraZeneca Shifts To An Expanded Label In The Type 2 Diabetes MarketMay 21, 2019
- Seeking AlphaGlaxoSmithKline & AstraZeneca, Two Brexit Cancellation Income PlaysApril 29, 2019
- InvestorPlaceIs AstraZeneca Stock Worth Buying Before Earnings?April 10, 2019
- InvestorPlaceAstraZeneca News: Why AZN Stock Is Sliding Lower TodayMarch 29, 2019