OneAscent Financial Services LLC Acquires Shares of 3,544 AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN)

OneAscent Financial Services LLC bought a new position in AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 3,544 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $232,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in AstraZeneca by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 19,480,569 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,276,367,000 after buying an additional 357,894 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in AstraZeneca by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 15,430,963 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,011,037,000 after acquiring an additional 466,416 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in AstraZeneca by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 10,959,852 shares of the company’s stock valued at $718,090,000 after purchasing an additional 479,692 shares in the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC raised its position in AstraZeneca by 17.7% in the 4th quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC now owns 3,745,531 shares of the company’s stock valued at $245,407,000 after purchasing an additional 564,297 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners boosted its stake in AstraZeneca by 9,985.6% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,707,479 shares of the company’s stock worth $243,444,000 after purchasing an additional 3,670,719 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 20.35% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley started coverage on AstraZeneca in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. They issued an “overweight” rating for the company. UBS Group raised shares of AstraZeneca from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.75.

AstraZeneca Trading Down 7.4 %

AZN opened at $68.46 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $73.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $71.48. AstraZeneca PLC has a fifty-two week low of $62.75 and a fifty-two week high of $87.68. The company has a market cap of $212.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.10 by ($0.05). AstraZeneca had a net margin of 13.01% and a return on equity of 32.23%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that AstraZeneca PLC will post 4.51 earnings per share for the current year.

AstraZeneca Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a dividend of $1.03 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This represents a yield of 2%. This is a boost from AstraZeneca’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.49. AstraZeneca’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 91.15%.

AstraZeneca Company Profile

AstraZeneca PLC, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, manufacture, and commercialization of prescription medicines. The company’s marketed products include Tagrisso, Imfinzi, Lynparza, Calquence, Enhertu, Orpathys, Truqap, Zoladex, Faslodex, Farxiga, Brilinta, Lokelma, Roxadustat, Andexxa, Crestor, Seloken, Onglyza, Bydureon, Fasenra, Breztri, Symbicort, Saphnelo, Tezspire, Pulmicort, Bevespi, and Daliresp for cardiovascular, renal, metabolism, and oncology.