AstraZeneca PLC $AZN Shares Sold by Sage Mountain Advisors LLC

Sage Mountain Advisors LLC trimmed its stake in AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) by 7.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,122 shares of the company’s stock after selling 356 shares during the quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC’s holdings in AstraZeneca were worth $288,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AZN. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in AstraZeneca by 30.9% during 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 during the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 1,329,166 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in AstraZeneca by 5.6% during the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,942,367 shares of the company’s stock worth $364,283,000 after acquiring an additional 261,064 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its stake in AstraZeneca by 20.8% during the second quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 4,077,554 shares of the company’s stock worth $284,939,000 after acquiring an additional 701,779 shares during the last quarter. Finally, WCM Investment Management LLC increased its stake in AstraZeneca by 7.3% during the first quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 4,003,070 shares of the company’s stock worth $295,387,000 after acquiring an additional 272,537 shares during the last quarter. 20.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AZN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Berenberg Bank set a $97.00 price target on AstraZeneca in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of AstraZeneca in a research note on Friday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered AstraZeneca from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $86.00.

AstraZeneca Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AZN opened at $83.29 on Monday. AstraZeneca PLC has a 1-year low of $61.24 and a 1-year high of $86.57. The business has a 50-day moving average of $80.87 and a 200-day moving average of $74.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The company has a market capitalization of $258.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.31, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.36.

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

AstraZeneca Cuts Dividend

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

AstraZeneca Company 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.