Astrazeneca Share Price (AZN)

JP Morgan has reiterated its ‘overweight’ rating on AstraZeneca, arguing that it has the strongest growth outlook of all the European drugs majors.

The bank, which has a target price of 7,900p on the blue-chip pharmaceutical company, hosted a conference call with AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot on Friday.

In a subsequent note published on Monday, JP Morgan analyst James Gordon said: “Soriot described Astra’s very strong topline growth outlook, driven by numerous recent positive clinical trial datapoints for new launch products and recent positive late-stage pipeline datapoints, with plenty of further late-stage assets to sustain the recent run of positive news flow into 2020.”

Addressing profits, Gordon added: “Soriot will benchmark Astra’s long-term operating profitability potential against peers such as Novartis Pharma and Pfizer, with significant leverage over selling, general and administration expenses and continued investment into R&D.”

He concluded: “We continue to see Astra offering the strongest topline and bottom-line growth outlook in EU large-cap pharma.”

Separately, AstraZeneca said on Monday that the US Food and Drug Administration had granted fast track status to its diabetes treatment Farxiga for the treatment of heart failure in adults with specific types of heart failure.

Citi reiterated its 'buy' rating AstraZeneca on Wednesday, lifting the price target to 10,000p from 7,000 as it said the market continues to under-appreciate the commercial potential and operating leverage from drugs such as Tagrisso, Lynparza, roxadustat and Farxiga.

The bank's rating on AstraZeneca, which has been Citi's preferred global pharma major for the last five years, was reiterated for another year.

As well as upping its price target, Citi increased its earnings estimates 4-16% from 2023, putting it 28% above consensus.

"On Tagrisso, ADAURA and FLAURA2 will drive material increases in treatment duration and market size," it said.

"On Lynparza, we are excited by the potential in prostate, SCLC, NSCLC and tissue agnostic indications. On Farxiga, recent data validates our long-held conviction on cardio-metabolic potential."

Citi added that the regulatory outlook for Roxadustat remains encouraging following discussions with biostatisticians.

And maybe because the USA is planning introduce drug pricing legislation.

Currency fluctuation = profit taking

Anyone any ideas, I am still in healthy profit here having an average of just £51.30, is it perhaps the view that a Brexit deal is now more likely and this was seen as a more defensive stock in the likelihood of a no deal scenario...? Is it just rebasing to a 'normal' level as other investments start to look attractive again, or is there something else going on I am unaware of....?