How to buy AstraZeneca stock | $55.78

AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) is a leading drug manufacturers-general business based in the US. It opened the day at $55.45 after a previous close of $55.21. During the day the price has varied from a low of $55.43 to a high of $55.87. The latest price was $55.78 (25 minute delay). AstraZeneca is listed on the NASDAQ and employs 76,100 staff. All prices are listed in US Dollars.

How has coronavirus impacted AstraZeneca's share price?

Since the stock market crash in March caused by coronavirus, AstraZeneca's share price has had significant positive movement.

Its last close price was $55.78, which is 10.05% up on its pre-crash value of $50.17 and 54.29% up on the lowest point reached during the March crash when the shares fell as low as $36.15.

If you had bought $1,000 worth of AstraZeneca shares at the start of February 2020, those shares would have been worth $799.26 at the bottom of the March crash, and if you held on to them, then as of the last market close they'd be worth $1.00.

In mid-November, AstraZeneca announced that its COVID-19 vaccine, which was developed in partnership with the University of Oxford, has an average efficacy of 70%. In some clinical tests, the vaccine was 90% effective. The company says it will have 3 billion doses of the vaccine available in 2021.

The company’s vaccine follows news that Moderna and Pfizer have each developed vaccines. Shares of AstraZeneca (AZN) were down following the news.

AstraZeneca share price

Use our graph to track the performance of AZN stocks over time.

AstraZeneca shares at a glance

• Live prices
• Key figures

Information last updated 2021-05-17.

Open	$55.45
High	$55.87
Low	$55.43
Close	$55.78
Previous close	$55.21
Change	$0.57
Change %	1.0234%
Volume	4,258,329

Information last updated 2021-05-14.

52-week range	$46.48 - $63.20
50-day moving average	$49.44
200-day moving average	$51.87
Wall St. target price	$63.60
PE ratio	35.9617
Dividend yield	$2.8 (5.18%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	$1.52

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Is it a good time to buy AstraZeneca stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of AstraZeneca PLC by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

AstraZeneca price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $55.775 from 2021-02-25

1 week (2021-05-10)	2.57%
1 month (2021-04-16)	9.92%
3 months (2021-02-17)	8.41%
6 months (2020-11-17)	1.48%

1 year (2020-05-15)	4.43%
2 years (2019-05-17)	47.63%
3 years (2018-05-17)	53.06%
5 years (2016-05-17)	93.73%

Is AstraZeneca under- or over-valued?

Valuing AstraZeneca stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of AstraZeneca's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

AstraZeneca's P/E ratio

AstraZeneca's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 36x. In other words, AstraZeneca shares trade at around 36x recent earnings.

That's relatively high compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The high P/E ratio could mean that investors are optimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're over-valued.

AstraZeneca's PEG ratio

AstraZeneca's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 1.3627. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into AstraZeneca's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

AstraZeneca's EBITDA

AstraZeneca's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is $6.7 billion.

The EBITDA is a measure of a AstraZeneca's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

AstraZeneca financials

Revenue TTM	$27.6 billion
Operating margin TTM	14.85%
Gross profit TTM	$21.4 billion
Return on assets TTM	4.19%
Return on equity TTM	29.67%
Profit margin	14.42%
Book value	$5.50
Market capitalisation	$143.4 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting AstraZeneca shares

There are currently 118.1 million AstraZeneca shares held short by investors – that's known as AstraZeneca's "short interest". This figure is 10.1% up from 107.3 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting AstraZeneca shares can be evaluated.

AstraZeneca's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

AstraZeneca's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of AstraZeneca shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of AstraZeneca shares traded daily (recently around 10.1 million). AstraZeneca's SIR currently stands at 11.72. In other words for every 100,000 AstraZeneca shares traded daily on the market, roughly 11720 shares are currently held short.

However AstraZeneca's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of AstraZeneca shares, or, against the total number of tradable AstraZeneca shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case AstraZeneca's short interest could be expressed as 0.04% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 AstraZeneca shares in existence, roughly 40 shares are currently held short) or 0% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable AstraZeneca shares, roughly 0 shares are currently held short).

A SIR above 10% would generally be considered pretty high, pointing to a potentially pessimistic outlook for the share price and a discouraging interest in betting against AstraZeneca.

Find out more about how you can short AstraZeneca stock.

AstraZeneca share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 60.74% of net profits

Recently AstraZeneca has paid out, on average, around 60.74% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 2.65% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), AstraZeneca shareholders could enjoy a 2.65% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In AstraZeneca's case, that would currently equate to about $2.8 per share.

AstraZeneca's payout ratio would broadly be considered high, and as such this stock could appeal to those looking to generate an income. Bear in mind however that companies should normally also look to re-invest a decent amount of net profits to ensure future growth.

AstraZeneca's most recent dividend payout was on 28 March 2021. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 24 February 2021 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have AstraZeneca's shares ever split?

AstraZeneca's shares were split on a 2:1 basis on 26 July 2015. So if you had owned 1 share the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 2 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your AstraZeneca shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 50% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for AstraZeneca shares which in turn could have impacted AstraZeneca's share price.

AstraZeneca share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, AstraZeneca's shares have ranged in value from as little as $46.48 up to $63.2033. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while AstraZeneca's is 0.1932. This would suggest that AstraZeneca's shares are less volatile than average (for this exchange).

AstraZeneca overview

AstraZeneca PLC discovers, develops, manufactures, and commercializes prescription medicines in the areas of oncology, cardiovascular, renal and metabolism, respiratory, infection, neuroscience, and gastroenterology worldwide. The company's marketed products include Tagrisso, Lynparza, Imfinzi, Enhertu, Koselugo, Lumoxiti, Equidacent, Zoladex, Faslodex, Iressa, Arimidex, Casodex/Cosudex, and others for oncology diseases; Onglyza, Bydureon, Lokelma, Byetta, Qtern, Symlin, and others for cardiovascular, renal, and metabolism diseases; and Symbicort, Pulmicort, Fasenra, Daliresp/Daxas, Duaklir, Tudorza/Eklira, Bevespi, Breztri, Anifrolumab, and others for respiratory and immunology diseases. It also offers other medicines and COVID-19 products, including Synagis, Fluenz Tetra/FluMist Quadrivalent, Seroquel IR/Seroquel XR, Vimovo, Movantik/Moventig, Nexium, Losec/Prilosec, and COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca. The company serves primary care and specialty care physicians through distributors and local representative offices. It has a collaboration agreement with Daiichi Sankyo to develop and commercialize DS-1062 for the treatment of trophoblast cell-surface antigen 2 (TROP2) tumor; AliveCor, Inc. to develop non-invasive potassium monitoring solutions; Massachusetts General Hospital to accelerate digital health solutions; Sanguina on smartphone application study for hemoglobin management in patients with anemia of chronic kidney disease; and Alchemab to enhance prostate cancer research. The company was formerly known as Zeneca Group PLC and changed its name to AstraZeneca PLC in April 1999.

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of AstraZeneca is owned by insiders or institutions?
Currently 0.005% of AstraZeneca shares are held by insiders and 15.777% by institutions. How many people work for AstraZeneca?
Latest data suggests 76,100 work at AstraZeneca. When does the fiscal year end for AstraZeneca?
AstraZeneca's fiscal year ends in December. Where is AstraZeneca based?
AstraZeneca's address is: 1 Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge, United Kingdom, CB2 0AA What is AstraZeneca's ISIN number?
AstraZeneca's international securities identification number is: US0463531089 What is AstraZeneca's CUSIP number?
AstraZeneca's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 046353108