Friday tips round-up: AstraZeneca, Vodafone

New AstraZeneca Chief Pascal Soriot made another decisive move on Thursday to return the company quickly back to growth, by acquiring the 50 per cent he did not already own of the firm's global diabetes joint-venture with Brystol Myers Squibb for 4.3bn dollars. The disease, which now afflicts 350m people worldwide and is expected to reach 550m sufferers by 2030, is one of the company's five so-called "growth platforms." As well, it's a perfect match with the firm's stated strategy of shifting more and more towards emerging markets. Nevertheless, as a part of the buyout AstraZeneca decided to take a $1.7bn impairment charge on Bydureon, one of the venture's worst performing drugs. That seems to signal that the Chief Executive believes that the firm overpaid for its initial 50 per cent. No doubt Soriot is now learning just how hard it is to move the Big Pharma needle, the Financial Times' Lex column wrote. Private investors in Vodafone have been receiving a circular regarding the outfit's sale of its take in Verizon Wireless in their mailboxes. As a part of the same, come February 24th they will become shareholders in a New York Stock Exchange-listed firm of which they may know very little. A number of Vodafone's institutional shareholders preferred to retain their presence in Verizon as they think it has good prospects. The Times' Tempus, however, sees otherwise. In fact, he cannot understand why UK retail investors would want to keep their Verizon shares. Hence, his advice is to make use of the free share dealing facility which has been put in place and sell them. Vodafone stock, on the other hand, is a different matter. "Having advanced by 20p since the deal was announced they are still worth holding," Tempus said. Please note: Digital Look provides a round-up of news, tips and information that is impacting share prices and the market. Digital Look cannot take any responsibility for information provided by third parties. This is for your general information only as not intended to be relied upon by users in making an investment decision or any other decision. Please obtain a copy of the relevant publication and carry out your own research before considering acting on any of this information.