DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. Makes New Investment in AstraZeneca PLC $AZN

DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. purchased a new position in AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of AZN. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AstraZeneca by 30.9% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 13,647,948 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,003,124,000 after acquiring an additional 3,224,251 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AstraZeneca by 406.9% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,020,629 shares of the company’s stock worth $148,517,000 after buying an additional 1,621,974 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its holdings in shares of AstraZeneca by 35.9% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,036,645 shares of the company’s stock worth $368,712,000 after buying an additional 1,329,166 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG grew its holdings in shares of AstraZeneca by 650.1% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,234,847 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,761,000 after buying an additional 1,070,223 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of AstraZeneca by 33.2% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,807,522 shares of the company’s stock worth $279,853,000 after buying an additional 948,659 shares in the last quarter. 20.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AZN. Berenberg Bank set a $97.00 price objective on AstraZeneca in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of AstraZeneca in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, AstraZeneca has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $86.00.

AstraZeneca Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AZN opened at $85.31 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $78.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $73.10. AstraZeneca PLC has a 52 week low of $61.24 and a 52 week high of $85.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $264.58 billion, a PE ratio of 32.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.36.

AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The company reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.09. AstraZeneca had a return on equity of 32.84% and a net margin of 14.68%.The firm had revenue of $14.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.08 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.24 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that AstraZeneca PLC will post 4.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AstraZeneca Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 8th. Investors of record on Friday, August 8th were given a dividend of $0.505 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 8th. This represents a yield of 200.0%. AstraZeneca’s dividend payout ratio is 37.97%.

AstraZeneca Profile

AstraZeneca PLC, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, manufacture, and commercialization of prescription medicines. The company’s marketed products include Tagrisso, Imfinzi, Lynparza, Calquence, Enhertu, Orpathys, Truqap, Zoladex, Faslodex, Farxiga, Brilinta, Lokelma, Roxadustat, Andexxa, Crestor, Seloken, Onglyza, Bydureon, Fasenra, Breztri, Symbicort, Saphnelo, Tezspire, Pulmicort, Bevespi, and Daliresp for cardiovascular, renal, metabolism, and oncology.