AstraZeneca plc (LON: AZN) on Friday said vaccine contracts helped its Q1 financial results. Moving forward, however, it expects COVID-related sales to sink by 21% to 25%. The stock is nearly flat today.
Notable figures in AstraZeneca Q1 results
The British-Swedish multinational reported $11.39 billion in first-quarter – a significant increase from last year’s $7.32 billion. Strength of its revenue, AstraZeneca added, was also attributed to $13.3 billion acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals.
Core earnings per share in Q1 jumped 20% to $1.89. On CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe”, CEO Pascal Soriot said:
We had a fantastic quarter with 60% growth in our total revenue. Each of our businesses and every geography grew quite a lot.
AstraZeneca reiterated fiscal 2022 guidance
For fiscal 2022, AstraZeneca forecasts high-teens percentage increase in total revenue. It expects 25% to 29% growth in core EPS this year, as per the earnings press release. Discussing the impact of COVID on other segments of the business, the chief executive noted:
It’s still affecting diagnosis and treatment of patients. There’s also a lot of backlog in many hospitals around the world. But we are starting to see some improvements. So, things are really looking up.
Soriot expects a “return to normal” in the back half of 2022, given no new, substantial peak in COVID. The stock is up more than 15% for the year.
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