Corrections & Amplifications
This headline was corrected at 0627 GMT. The original misstated the second quarter revenue as $10.63B.
By Ian Walker
AstraZeneca PLC on Friday reported a swing to second-quarter net loss after booking a large foreign-exchange charge in its accounts, but raised its full-year revenue guidance due to better-than-expected Covid-19 medicine revenue.
The Anglo-Swedish pharma giant said it now expects to report a low twenties percentage rise in total revenue for the year, up from previous guidance of high teens percentage. It also said revenue from Covid-19 medicines are expected to be flat compared with 2021. It had previously guided for a low-to-mid twenties percentage fall.
AstraZeneca posted a net loss of $372 million for the quarter compared with a profit of $1.19 billion for the same period a year earlier.
Revenue for the quarter rose to $10.77 billion, from $8.22 billion. Revenue consensus was $10.45 billion.
Core earnings per share–one of the company’s preferred metrics–rose to $1.72 in the quarter, compared with $0.90 and a consensus of $1.57.
Consensus figures have been taken from FactSet and are based on 16 analysts’ projections.
AstraZeneca reiterated that it expects core EPS growth in the mid-to-high twenties percentage.
The board has increased its interim dividend to $0.93 a share compared with $0.90 for the first half of 2021.
Write to Ian Walker at [email protected]
