Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Has $11.94 Million Stock Holdings in AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its position in AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) by 8.1% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 176,162 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,151 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings in AstraZeneca were worth $11,935,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AZN. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in AstraZeneca by 113.0% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 95,677 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,444,000 after acquiring an additional 50,750 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of AstraZeneca by 51.8% during the third quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 14,424 shares of the company’s stock worth $977,000 after purchasing an additional 4,919 shares during the period. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in AstraZeneca by 317.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,242,431 shares of the company’s stock valued at $84,136,000 after purchasing an additional 944,765 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in AstraZeneca in the third quarter valued at about $2,241,000. Finally, Manning & Napier Group LLC boosted its holdings in AstraZeneca by 281.2% during the fourth quarter. Manning & Napier Group LLC now owns 2,779,212 shares of the company’s stock worth $187,180,000 after buying an additional 2,050,064 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 20.35% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AZN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised AstraZeneca from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of AstraZeneca from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of AstraZeneca in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. They issued an “overweight” rating on the stock. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, AstraZeneca presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.00.

AstraZeneca Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AZN traded up $0.55 during trading on Friday, hitting $76.35. 9,026,349 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,666,863. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $68.38 and a 200-day moving average price of $66.36. AstraZeneca PLC has a 52 week low of $60.47 and a 52 week high of $76.80. The company has a market cap of $236.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.47.

AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $12.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.07 billion. AstraZeneca had a net margin of 13.30% and a return on equity of 30.42%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.69 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that AstraZeneca PLC will post 4.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AstraZeneca Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a Semi-Annual dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 25th. Investors of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a $0.965 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. This is a positive change from AstraZeneca’s previous Semi-Annual dividend of $0.47. This represents a yield of 2.3%. AstraZeneca’s dividend payout ratio is presently 94.61%.

About AstraZeneca

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.