Shares in pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca (AZN) climbed over 3% today after it said cancer-fighting drugs had led to record quarterly sales.
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Forecast Beaters
The company reported that Q2 earnings per share beat forecasts, coming in at $2.17, up from $1.98 in the same period last year.
Revenues for the period also beat forecasts, soaring to a record $14.46 billion from $12.94 billion last time.
AstraZeneca said its “broad and diverse pipeline” of drugs had helped with oncology sales doing particularly well, rising 18% to $6.3 billion. It was boosted by sales of its lung cancer drug Tagrisso and chemotherapy drug Enhertu, and continues to lead overall performance.
European sales were up 12% to $3 billion, with Chinese demand up 5% to nearly $2 billion.
U.S. revenue was up 13% to a record $6.32 billion. The pharmaceutical company is targeting 50% of its total revenue coming from the country by 2030, up from 44% in the second quarter.
To help that aim, the group has already committed to investing $50 billion in the U.S. by 2030 including a new manufacturing center in Virginia.
Tariff Uncertainty
That move was partly in response to uncertainty about the impact of President Trump’s tariffs on the pharmaceutical sector.
AstraZeneca said that global trade uncertainty and pricing pressures still existed but it reiterated its full-year forecast. This should see total revenue increasing by a “high single-digit percentage” and core earnings per share by a “low double-digit” percentage.
Chief executive Sir Pascal Soriot said: “Our strong momentum in revenue growth continued through the first half of the year and the delivery from our broad and diverse pipeline has been excellent, with 12 positive key phase III trial readouts including for baxdrostat, gefurulimab, and Tagrisso in just the past few weeks.”
The group is known as a strong income investing stock. It further cheered investors by hiking its Interim dividend by 3% to $1.03.
Is AZN a Good Stock to Buy Now?
On TipRanks, AZN has a Strong Buy consensus based on 4 Buy ratings. Its highest price target is $97. AZN stock’s consensus price target is $97, implying a 36.04% upside.
