AstraZeneca forecasts 2022 growth even as COVID revenue wanes

While sales of COVID-19 products are expected to decline by a low-to-mid 20s percentage this year, Astrazeneca forecast overall revenues to rise by a high teens percentage.

AstraZeneca raised its annual dividend for the first time in a decade on Thursday and forecast higher sales for 2022 as new drugs against cancer, kidney disease and rare conditions make up for a decline in COVID-19 products.

Early data has shown a booster shot of the drugmaker’s widely-used COVID-19 vaccine and its antibody drug Evusheld both work against the Omicron coronavirus variant.

But while the company forecasts sales of Evusheld to grow this year, it expects that will be more than outweighed by a decline in sales of the vaccine amid growing competition.

AstraZeneca has started earning a modest profit on the vaccine, which was initially sold at-cost under a deal with its developers at Oxford University. But the company said it would continue to sell it to low-income nations on a non-profit basis.

While sales of COVID-19 products are expected to decline by a low-to-mid 20s percentage this year, the London-listed company forecast overall revenues to rise by a high teens percentage, with core earnings up by a mid-to-high 20s percentage.

Its shares were up around 3% at 1215 GMT, among the biggest risers on the FTSE-100 index, as some investors had braced for a weaker performance this year.

“There had been significant investor anxiety coming into today’s guidance issuance, and with overall 2022 consensus numbers not likely to change on the back of the update, we believe the overhang should be largely lifted,” analysts at J.P. Morgan said in a note.

Analysts currently expect 2022 earnings per share (EPS) of $6.68 and sales of $42.73 billion, according to Refinitiv IBES data.