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(Alliance News) - AstraZeneca on Friday said it delivered a strong first-half boosted by demand for its cancer treatments.
For the six months to June 30, revenue jumped to USD22.16 billion from USD15.54 billion last year with growth coming from all disease areas, including Covid-19 medicines, and from the addition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals.
AstraZeneca declared a USD0.93 interim dividend, which it said reflects its intention to increase its payout to USD2.90 per share for 2022. It had paid out a total of USD2.87 for 2021.
Looking ahead, the Cambridge, England-based drug maker raised its full-year revenue guidance, saying it expects it to rise by a percentage in the low twenties rather than the high teens forecast previously.
Separately, AstraZeneca promoted Non-Executive Director Michel Demare to chair-designate, set to replace Leif Johansson at the annual general meeting in April 2023. Demare joined the AstraZeneca board in September 2019.
"AstraZeneca had a strong financial first half of 2022, and great pipeline delivery. We announced practice-changing data for several medicines including Enhertu in breast cancer, Farxiga in heart failure and Ultomiris in neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder," said Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot.
"Given the ongoing performance of our underlying business and the contribution of our COVID-19 medicines, we are updating our revenue guidance for 2022. This has enabled us to increase our R&D investment in the exciting number of pipeline opportunities that can benefit patients and drive long term sustainable growth for our company. We look forward to announcing the results of several important late-stage trials this year and next," Soriot said.
AstraZeneca shares were down 2.0% early Friday.
Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.5% at 7,383.32
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Hang Seng: down 2.7% at 20,074.50
Nikkei 225: closed down 0.1% at 27,801.64
S&P/ASX 200: closed up 0.8% at 6,945.20
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DJIA: closed up 332.04 points, or 1.0%, at 32,529.63
S&P 500: closed up 1.2% at 4,072.43
Nasdaq Composite: closed up 1.1% to 12,162.59
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EUR: up at USD1.0238 (USD1.0163)
GBP: up at USD1.2224 (USD1.2129)
USD: down at JPY132.07 (JPY134.45)
Gold: up at USD1,765.24 per ounce (USD1,755.39)
Oil (Brent): down at USD107.02 a barrel (USD107.47)
(changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Friday's key economic events still to come
0955 CEST Germany unemployment
1100 CEST EU consumer price index
1100 CEST EU gross domestic product
0930 BST UK mortgage approvals
0830 EDT US personal income & outlays
1000 EDT US University of Michigan survey of consumers
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The government of Ireland has agreed "bold" and "ambitious" targets to limit emissions in key sectors of the economy, the Green Party leader said. Eamon Ryan said it was a "hugely significant and important day". An agreement was reached on Thursday on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in key sectors of the Irish economy after reaching a compromise rate of 25% for agriculture. A reduction rate of 75% was set for the electricity sector and a 50% reduction for the transport sector. Speaking at Government Buildings on Thursday evening, Ryan said: "We have to be ambitious. We have to be bold. We have to take the action now. We cannot delay and that's what this government has committed to."
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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Jefferies raises Segro to 'buy' (hold) - price target 1,175 (1,100) pence
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RBC raises Anglo American to 'outperform' (sector perform) - price target 3,400 (3,300) pence
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RBC raises Antofagasta to 'sector perform' (underperform) - price target 1,000 pence
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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International Consolidated Airlines swung to profit in the second quarter of 2022, citing strong demand for premium leisure travel and a continued recovery of business travel from the Covid-19 pandemic. The British Airways owner climbed to a EUR73 million pretax profit in the three months to June 30 from a whopping EUR1.12 billion loss a year before. IAG remained in loss for the half-year, though this narrowed to EUR843 million from EUR2.34 billion. IAG said it will fly 80% of 2019 - meaning pre-pandemic - passenger capacity in the third quarter and 85% in the fourth. It said this was down five percentage points from previous guidance and was due to "challenges at Heathrow" airport in London. Still, IAG said its full-year capacity will be 78% of 2019's and North America will be close to full 2019 capacity by year-end.
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UK state-backed lender NatWest said it delivered a strong performance in the first half of 2022 against a beneficial backdrop of rising interest rates. For the six months to June 30, total income was GBP6.22 billion, up from GBP5.14 billion last year. Operating pretax profit was GBP2.62 billion, up from GBP2.32 billion. Turning to returns, NatWest proposed an interim dividend of 3.5 pence per share, up 17% from last year and a special dividend with share consolidation of GBP1.75 billion, or 16.8 pence per share. Taken together these will deliver 20.3p of dividends per share, it said. It also noted it has completed the GBP750 million share buyback programme launched in February.
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Standard Chartered said it delivered a strong set of results for the first half of the year, as the emerging markets focused lender launched a substantial share buyback. For the six months to June 30, operating income rose 8% to USD8.22 billion from USD7.63 billion last year, and pretax profit was USD2.77 billion, up 8% from USD2.56 billion. Turning to returns, StanChart proposed an interim dividend of USD119 million, equivalent to 4.0 US cents per share. StanChart also announced a USD500 million share buyback to start "imminently" and plans to return more than USD5 billion to shareholders over the next three years. During the recent half, it completed a USD750 million buyback. Chief Executive Officer Bill Winters said: "China is deploying strong policy stimulus that should help kick-start the economy so boosting domestic and regional activity. We are well equipped to navigate this complex macroeconomic picture with the solid risk-management foundations that the group has built over time and the resilience of our diversified business model. Against this backdrop, we remain confident in the delivery of the financial and strategic targets laid out back in February, to deliver at least a 10% [return on tangible equity] by 2024, if not earlier."
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Barclays provided further details on the GBP500 million share buyback that it announced with its interim results on Thursday. It said the new programme will begin either when the GBP1.00 billion buyback started in May completes, or on October 3, whichever is earlier, and complete it by January 28 next year. Barclays has appointed Citigroup to run the new buyback.
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Glencore reported a mixed production performance in the first half of the year, dominated by the sale of Ernest Henry Mining, disposal of the zinc business, and continued geotechnical constraints at Katanga. The Baar, Switzerland-based commodity trader and miner said these factors were offset by improved cobalt, nickel and ferrochrome output levels and the additional contribution from the Cerrejon coal mine joint venture in Colombia. Last year, Glencore acquired two-thirds of the Cerrejon joint venture from BHP and Anglo American for USD588 million. The group stuck to its full-year production guidance, with the exception of copper. In the first half, copper production dropped by 15% to 510,200 tonnes from 598,000 tonnes in the prior year.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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The UK Competition & Markets Authority has launched a probe into alleged 'greenwashing' by online fast-fashion retailers Asos and boohoo, as well as the George brand of grocer Asda. The CMA said the companies make "broad claims about the use of recycled materials in new clothing – with little to no information about the basis for those claims or exactly which products they related to". It added: "Should we find these companies are using misleading eco claims, we won't hesitate to take enforcement action – through the courts if necessary." Asos said it will cooperate with the investigation.
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COMPANIES - GLOBAL
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Sony trimmed its annual net profit forecast, partly due to acquisition expenses, including the purchase of game studio Bungie. The PlayStation manufacturer now predicts net profit for financial 2023 will total JPY800 billion, about USD6 billion, down from the JPY830 billion previously forecast. Sony said the predicted increase in acquisition expenses was "mainly due to the acquisition of Bungie Inc being completed earlier than the assumed timing". Sony announced in February it was buying the creator of hits like "Halo" and "Destiny" weeks after its US rival Microsoft unveiled a landmark pact to acquire "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard. Sony reported first-quarter net income of JPY218.20 billion, up 3.0% from JPY211.83 billion a year before, as revenue rose 2.4% to JPY2.311 trillion from JPY2.256 trillion.
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Friday's shareholder meetings
Eneraqua Technologies PLC - AGM
Global Ports Holding PLC - GM re elections of Ajini and Iosifakis as directors
Palace Capital PLC - AGM
ProCook Group PLC - AGM
Record PLC - AGM
Rogue Baron PLC - AGM
Sirius Real Estate Ltd - AGM
Standard Chartered PLC - GM re approving interim dividend
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com
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