Deutsche Bank has repeated a Sell rating on AstraZeneca (LSE:AZN) with an 11,500p price target, implying substantial downside from the stock's last close of 12,888p.
Analyst Emmanuel Papadakis said the drugmaker's second-quarter results came in as his team had anticipated in their bearish preview, with no upgrade to guidance and a mixed revenue print offsetting a small beat on core earnings per share that was driven by tax rather than operations.
Operating expenses missed expectations even as cash flow held up reasonably well, and Papadakis noted the maintained constant-exchange-rate and currency guidance implies consensus forecasts need to rise 1-2% on the revenue line.
He described a heavy volume of complex research and development newsflow as "net neutral" for the stock, with no update on the pending AVANZAR or S4 trial readouts that remain key catalysts for the shares.
