Shares in AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) headed higher on Monday morning after the UK drugs giant was on the end of an upgrade from analysts at Credit Suisse.
The team at the Swiss bank says it has seen a “marked improvement” in Astra’s strategic position in pricing power and replacement power following the recent pipeline success for its Tagrisso and Imfinzi cancer drugs.
That improvement means AstraZeneca now ranks second in Credit Suisse’s Global Major Pharma table behind Sanofi, having been in the bottom quartile for the past three years.
The analysts have also boosted their sales forecasts for Tagrisso and Imfinzi (PACIFIC) to US$3bn and US$2.5bn respectively.
“AstraZeneca will see a uniquely positioned lung cancer franchise increasingly contribute to the P&L,” read this morning’s note.
“This drives superior top line growth, adds margin leverage and increases pricing power.”
Credit Suisse was somewhat cautious on selling general and administrative (SG&A) costs, but that didn’t stop the bank upgrading to ‘outperform’ and hiking its target price by a tenner to £58.
Astra shares were up 0.7% to £51.63 in mid-morning trade on Monday.