Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. reduced its position in AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN – Get Rating) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 65,780 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,592 shares during the quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc.’s holdings in AstraZeneca were worth $4,460,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. grew its position in AstraZeneca by 26.3% in the 3rd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 4,983 shares of the company’s stock valued at $273,000 after acquiring an additional 1,038 shares in the last quarter. JGP Global Gestao de Recursos Ltda. boosted its stake in shares of AstraZeneca by 11.1% in the 3rd quarter. JGP Global Gestao de Recursos Ltda. now owns 9,731 shares of the company’s stock valued at $534,000 after buying an additional 971 shares during the period. Tudor Investment Corp Et Al purchased a new position in shares of AstraZeneca in the 3rd quarter valued at about $5,087,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AstraZeneca by 2,572.7% in the 3rd quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 1,470 shares of the company’s stock valued at $81,000 after buying an additional 1,415 shares during the period. Finally, ARGI Investment Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of AstraZeneca by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. ARGI Investment Services LLC now owns 7,074 shares of the company’s stock valued at $388,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. 16.42% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AZN. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on AstraZeneca from £120 ($147.44) to £130 ($159.72) in a research note on Thursday, December 15th. StockNews.com began coverage on AstraZeneca in a research note on Thursday, March 16th. They set a “strong-buy” rating for the company. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on AstraZeneca in a research note on Thursday, January 5th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Berenberg Bank boosted their target price on AstraZeneca from GBX 118 ($1.45) to GBX 126 ($1.55) in a research note on Wednesday, January 18th. Finally, TheStreet upgraded AstraZeneca from a “c” rating to an “a” rating in a research note on Monday, December 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AstraZeneca presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $10,825.11.
AstraZeneca Trading Up 0.1 %
NASDAQ:AZN opened at $68.64 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $212.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.15, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $66.24 and its 200-day simple moving average is $67.19. AstraZeneca PLC has a 12-month low of $52.65 and a 12-month high of $72.12.
AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 9th. The company reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $11.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.40 billion. AstraZeneca had a return on equity of 28.63% and a net margin of 7.42%. Equities analysts anticipate that AstraZeneca PLC will post 3.61 EPS for the current year.
AstraZeneca Increases Dividend
The firm also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, February 24th were issued a dividend of $0.985 per share. This represents a yield of 2%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 23rd. This is a positive change from AstraZeneca’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.47. AstraZeneca’s dividend payout ratio is currently 180.38%.
AstraZeneca Company Profile
AstraZeneca Plc is a holding company, which engages in the research, development, manufacture, and commercialization of prescription medicines. The company was founded on June 17, 1992 and is headquartered in Cambridge, the United Kingdom.