Looking very good would never have bought at £130 but at £98 I had to, it seemed far to low for a problem affecting less than 5% of profit. |
Upgrade to full year guidance on the back of some great numbers.Great figures across the board will hopefully ease the China situation and we should have a great day with the share price.Fingers crossed. |
 Shore Capital has maintained its ‘buy’ rating on the stock, seeing it as undervalued despite the growing uncertainty. “Q3 results next week could help to allay some of these concerns,” analysts said.
Astrazeneca is due to report its third-quarter results on Tuesday. Investors will be on the lookout for additional product approvals as well as the progress of newly-launched treatments.
Wall Street expects quarterly earnings of $1.01 (78p) per share, an increase of over 16 per cent year over year. Revenue estimates are also up, projected at $13bn (£10bn), annual growth of around 13.5 per cent.
At the half year point, Astrazeneca upgraded its revenue guidance thanks to strong underlying growth in product sales and Alliance Revenue within The company raised its total revenue and core EPS guidance for 2024.
But this “hasn’t been enough to give a further shot in the arm to market sentiment,” said Derren Nathan, head of equity analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown.
“At the third-quarter health check, the market is likely to be paying close attention to the pace of adoption of some core products, and there’s hope that recent approvals will provide a tailwind to growth,” he added.
Overall, analysts reckon the company is on track to hit its $80bn (£62bn) revenue target and a mid-thirties operating margin by 2030.
“Markets aren’t expecting any change to that longer-term steer, but some further reassurance wouldn’t go amiss. The same could be said about some further detail on the investigation by the Chinese authorities into AstraZeneca’s President in the region, Leon Wang,” Nathan said. |
AstraZeneca has explaining to do after £50 billion value wipe out
At the start of September when its share price was at an all-time high
and it was comfortably the UK’s largest company,
AstraZeneca PLC (LSE:AZN) management might have been expecting a routine
third-quarter update.
Two months on however and £50 billion has been wiped from its value
with growing questions over its pipeline and operation in China.
Poor trial results and some questionable PR – putting out a three-
sentence response to the China issue during the middle of Rachel
Reeves’ Budget speech for example - have added to the unease.
The trial disappointments surround its dato-DXd cancer drug and its
fledgling move into the weight loss drug arena.
In China, AstraZeneca has confirmed its president there Leon Wang
is co-operating with the authorities as part of an ongoing investigation
but has given no details, saying it will not comment on speculative media reports.
Some City commentators have suggested that the pharma is not directly
involved and the share price fall is exaggerated.
ShoreCap, in a detailed look at the issue, added Astra could help
alleviate investor concerns by providing clarity on its China business and
reaffirming its growth prospects in the third quarter update.
Whether it chooses to remains to be seen
proactiveinvestors.co.uk |
I suppose in retrospect an IPO of the China business as discussed a year or so ago would have been a good idea |
Seems its in oncology results were massaged to qualify for state insurance but AZN is not being blamed ,sales of such drugs are less than 5% of chinese revenue and not greatly profitable.
Looks like they have thrown out the baby with the bath water. |
Incredible, really. I hope their next income guidance, on the 12th, doesn't contain too much good news as it'll probably make it sink further. |
I'm holding what I've got but not adding until this mess is cleaned up.
AZN now my smallest portfolio holding by value. |
I reckon 9461p then may have a look. |
Horrible drop, looking to buy v soon. |
Pulled the trigger this morning topped up 50% of what I was going to buy will hold fire with the rest until next week. I keep thinking for 13% of sales this fall is overdone its not as if they will lose all of China sales .
Ok some fine as well its part of doing business in China. |
And still the shareprice goes south even after that AstraZeneca statement - not good at all..
Going nowhere but down until this claimed fraud is cleared by the chinese.
Chart support around 8000p / 8500p |
I think further to fall, investors hate uncertainty. |
well done for holding off, it's dropping off again! |
Yep, it's boll*xed for now. |
More bad news |
I was thinking about adding today but will hold off buying until the Trump euphoria subsides. |
Soriot's head is on the block here. |
Maybe Barclays and GS should apologise to clients on their buy recommend yesterday morning?
The smell was around late Oct, became a stench yesterday. |
Deitche Bank upgrades to hold today |
The Guardian: AstraZeneca shares tumbled on Tuesday wiping £14bn off the value of Britain’s biggest drug maker, after a report that dozens of senior executives at its China unit could be implicated in an insurance fraud case in the country’s pharmaceutical sector. |
Daily Mail
AstraZeneca shares crash 8.4% as China probe widens: Beijing steps up fraud investigation
AstraZeneca shares suffered their worst one-day drop in more than four years following reports executives in its China business are embroiled in a widening fraud probe.
The FTSE 100 pharma giant, one of the UK’s largest companies, saw £14.4billion wiped off its value after a Chinese state-controlled media outlet said dozens of managers at the business were implicated in a scandal.
An announcement from the group last week revealed that its Chinese arm president Leon Wang was under investigation
An insider at the drugmaker has alleged that stretching targets put ‘extreme pressure’ on AstraZeneca’s sales reps and contributed to issues around compliance, according to Shanghai-based Yicai.
The news outlet also reported that the investigation into AstraZeneca has expanded to include several government agencies.
Shares tumbled 8.4 per cent, or 928p at 10114p. That took losses since its peak in early September, soon after it became Britain’s first ever £200billion company, to 24 per cent.
The sell-off over the past two months – which have coincided with a string of issues in China – has seen its value fall from £205billion to £156billion.
The probe is a setback for chief executive Pascal Soriot who has been hailed for his stewardship of the company since taking over in 2012.
Shares had more than quadrupled on his watch, before the recent sell-off, and still remain some 250 per cent up.
An AstraZeneca spokesman said: ‘As a matter of policy, we do not comment on speculative media reports including those related to ongoing investigations in China. If requested, we will fully cooperate with the Chinese authorities.’
In October, reports emerged that Eva Yin, a former senior executive at AstraZeneca’s China business, had been detained.
The previous month, five current and former employees were also held by Chinese authorities, reportedly for questioning over possibly breaching data privacy laws and importing unlicensed medications.
It is not the first time that AstraZeneca has butted heads with Chinese officials.
In 2022, local police arrested several employees as part of a probe into whether they had faked patient gene-testing results to claim funds from China’s state-run medical insurance fund.
The fallout from this latest investigation threatens AstraZeneca’s business in one of its most critical markets. China accounts for £4.5billion in sales last year, about 13 per cent of its total.
AstraZeneca is the largest pharmaceutical company operating in China and has around 17,000 staff. The group is also planning to build a £350m factory and has also recently signed a number of licensing deals with Chinese companies.
These include a £1.5billion agreement struck last year with Chinese firm Eccogene to develop a weight-loss drug as AstraZeneca moves to take advantage of soaring demand for medicines such as Ozempic.
It is not the only British pharma firm on the hunt for deals in China.
Last week, FTSE 100 rival GSK signed a £653million deal with Chinese biotech firm Chimagen to buy an experimental drug for the autoimmune disease lupus.
thisismoney.co.uk/ |
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