AstraZeneca PLC (LSE:AZN) recently committed to reporting how its business impacts nature as part of annual corporate results, but next Thursday's final results are not likely to focus on anything other than operation and financial performance.
The pharmaceutical giant lost its FTSE 100 number one spot to Shell last year (and regained it temporarily last month) but boss Pascal Soriot has been hard at work to wrestle back the crown for good in 2024, as well as dismissing rumours about an impending retirement.
Two mid-sized acquisitions, for example, were completed in the final quarter - US virus specialist Icosavax for US$1.1 billion and China's Gracell for US$1.2 billion, plus an increased pipeline-pumping deal with Cellnex, and the addition of an early-stage drug portfolio from Pfizer for US$1 billion in September.
At the last quarterly update from the Anglo-Swedish group, Soriot tweaked the revenue and earnings outlook upwards, but also sealed a licence deal for a weight-loss drug in the same family as Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO)'s Wegovy.
This acquisition, saw AZ buy the licence for ECC5504, an oral GLP-1 receptor agonist, from Eccogene for an initial payment of $185 million that could rise up to $2 billion.
As for the new guidance, core EPS for 2023 was anticipated to rise by a low double-digit percentage rise, with total revenue excluding Covid treatments forecasting a rise by a low teens percentage.
Overall revenue growth is also projected to outperform previous estimates, with the company now setting its sights on a mid-single-digit percentage increase, as opposed to the earlier forecast of a low-to-mid single-digit rise.
Some analysts see the shares as a core holding for investors, like Barclays and Bank of America, like its steady growth at a reasonable price
Others are not so positive, with UBS for example recently downgrading the stock due to its exposure to the US Medicare Part D reform, anticipated to impact sales growth from 2025, which are set to impact the Anglo-Swedish giant's oral oncology portfolio, which includes drugs such as Tagrisso, Lynparza, and Calquence.