JP Morgan applauds AstraZeneca's growth outlook
By Abigail Townsend
Date: Monday 16 Sep 2019
(Sharecast News) - 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.
As at 1415, shares in Astra were largely flat at 6,866p.
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