28 October 2010 – third quarter results
We are surprised that the latest announcement from the company has not been well received by the market. Full year targets continue to look achieveable and core earnings per share now look set to fall within the range of $6.50 to $6.65. This currently equates to over 400p, putting the shares on a low multiple of prospective earnings. To date AstraZeneca has completed just $1.297bn of its planned $2bn of net share repurchases in 2010 and this fact should provide support over the next couple of months. BUY.