US broker Bernstein has upped its stance on AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) to ‘outperform’ from ‘market perform, citing the drug maker's big pipeline and takeover possibilities.
The broker’s analysts also raised their target price for AstraZeneca to 5,780p from 4,250p, with the FTSE 100-listed firm’s shares up 1.1%, or 51p to 4,819.5p in late morning trading today.
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Bernstein’s analyst said they consider AstraZeneca as a “pipeline-driven, return-to-growth story”, pointing that the group has one of the fullest phase 3 trial pipelines.
They also pointed out: "If industry consolidation occurs, between AZN's full pipeline, its superior growth and its comparatively smaller size, it could be a take-out candidate.”