AstraZeneca plc (AZN) posted stronger-than-expected first quarter earnings and held on to its full-year guidance despite a slowing in sales for some of its key treatments in the face of generic competition.
Core earnings for the first three months of the year rose $0.99 per share, the company said, well ahead of the $0.85 forecast compiled by FactSet and up from $0.92 in the first quarter of 2016. Total revenues for the period were marked at $5.4 billion, largely in-line with the FactSet forecast but down 11.5% from the first quarter of last year.
"Variations in performance between quarters can be expected to continue, with year-on-year comparisons expected to ease in the second half of FY 2017, when the impact of the entry of Crestor generic medicines in the US will annualise," the company said..
AstraZeneca shares slipped 1.4% in early London trading to change hands at 4,618 pence each, trimming the year-to-date advance to around 4.2% this year, a gain that is largely in-line with the Stoxx Europe TMI Pharmaceuticals index.
