AstraZeneca, the British drugmaker, is scheduled to report third-quarter 2023 results on Nov 9, before the opening bell. In the last quarter, the company delivered an earnings surprise of over 11 percent and has beaten estimates in three of the past four quarters. The analysts estimate a quarterly EPS of 0.84 and revenue between 11.4B and 12B. The market expectation is being revised downward for the EPS so there is not much chance of an earnings beat.

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Sales of AstraZeneca's key medicines, mainly cancer drugs and diabetes medicine, are likely to have driven the company's sales for the current quarter. Drugs related to COPD treatment and lupus drugs are also expected to have played a part in the quarter to be reported soon. There is a strong demand for AstraZeneca drugs but there are also headwinds for the company.

Sales of AstraZeneca's legacy drugs appear to have weakened and this is also expected to figure in the quarter to be reported. Also adding to the gloom is the fact that the FDA withdrew the emergency-use authorization granted to AstraZeneca's antibody medicine for COVID-19. There has been a significant decline in COVID-19 product sales, as such, it is widely expected that the overall sales in the Vaccines segment will be modest.

AstraZeneca has investments planned to maintain its market share in the pharmaceutical industry like its investment of $245 million in French biotechnology company Cellectis. The deal aims to speed up the development of therapeutics in areas including oncology, immunology, and rare diseases. AstraZeneca said that as part of the deal, it will pay Cellectis $105 million by the end of this year. That includes an $80 million equity investment, which will be followed by another $140 million in early 2024, which will give AstraZeneca a stake of about 44% in the French company. These developments are of course, not expected to figure in the financial results yet, but may figure in the guidance.