AstraZeneca Stock Gains As Q2 Earnings Beat Forecasts, Clocks $894M In COVID-19 Vaccine Sales

AstraZeneca plc AZN COVID vaccine generated $894 million in sales in Q2. The group added that it shipped about 319 million doses worldwide during 1H of 2021, which included $572 million in Europe and $455 million in emerging markets.

Q2 Earnings: AZN delivered strong revenue growth of 31% Y/Y (25% at CER) in Q2 to $8.2 billion, beating the consensus of $7.36 billion.

Excluding the contribution from the COVID-19 vaccine, revenue increased by 17% (12% at CER) in the quarter to $7.4 billion. 

"AstraZeneca has delivered another period of strong growth thanks to robust performances across all regions and disease areas, particularly Oncology, New CVRM, and Fasenra in Respiratory," said Pascal Soriot, CEO.

The oncology unit witnessed a growth of 19% (14% at CER) to $3.3 billion, and New CVRM increased 22% (16% at CER) to $1.4 billion. Similarly, Respiratory & Immunology (R&I) increased by 27% (21% at CER) to $1.4 billion.

The gross margin declined to 72.8% from 83.7%, predominantly reflecting the significant impact of the equitable supply, at no profit to AstraZeneca, of the pandemic COVID-19 vaccine, together with an increasing impact from profit-sharing arrangements. Operating margin also contracted from 20.5% to 13.7% in Q2.

Reported core EPS of $0.90, down 6% (-2% at CER), surpassed the analyst estimate of $0.43. Reported and Core EPS were adversely impacted by $0.01 due to the pandemic COVID-19 vaccine.

The Company has also delayed its US application for COVID-19 vaccine to 2H of 2021, against 1H of 2021 as hoped earlier.

Guidance: AstraZeneca is updating its full-year 2021 guidance to reflect the contribution of Alexion in the year. Total revenue is expected to increase by a low-twenties percentage. It expects a core EPS of $5.05 to $5.40, which does not include sales from the vaccine. The consensus EPS for FY21 is $5.08

Price Action: AZN shares are up 1.50% at $57.66 during the premarket session on the last check Thursday.

Related Link: No Increased Risk Of Blood Clots After Second Dose Of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 Shot, Study Shows

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