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AstraZeneca (AZN) Competitors

AstraZeneca logo
£106.26 +264.00 (+2.55%)
As of 12:24 PM Eastern

AZN vs. GSK, ITH, SOPH, HCM, INDV, GRI, SLS, ERGO, SLN, and AMYT

Should you be buying AstraZeneca stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of AstraZeneca include GSK (GSK), Ithaca Energy (ITH), Sophos Group plc (SOPH.L) (SOPH), HUTCHMED (HCM), Indivior (INDV), Grainger (GRI), Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust (SLS), Ergomed (ERGO), Silence Therapeutics (SLN), and Amryt Pharma (AMYT). These companies are all part of the "pharmaceutical products" industry.

AstraZeneca vs. Its Competitors

GSK (LON:GSK) and AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, media sentiment and institutional ownership.

GSK pays an annual dividend of GBX 60 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. AstraZeneca pays an annual dividend of GBX 234 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. GSK pays out 96.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. AstraZeneca pays out 64.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

AstraZeneca has higher revenue and earnings than GSK. GSK is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AstraZeneca, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
GSK£31.14B1.90£2.50B£61.9123.50
AstraZeneca£66.95B3.05£8.71B£364.8329.13

AstraZeneca has a net margin of 13.01% compared to GSK's net margin of 8.02%. GSK's return on equity of 18.08% beat AstraZeneca's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
GSK8.02% 18.08% 9.56%
AstraZeneca 13.01%17.76%7.68%

45.3% of GSK shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.0% of AstraZeneca shares are held by institutional investors. 1.6% of GSK shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of AstraZeneca shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

In the previous week, AstraZeneca had 4 more articles in the media than GSK. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for AstraZeneca and 4 mentions for GSK. GSK's average media sentiment score of 0.25 beat AstraZeneca's score of 0.16 indicating that GSK is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
GSK
1 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
1 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Neutral
AstraZeneca
1 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
5 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Neutral

GSK has a beta of 0.31, meaning that its share price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AstraZeneca has a beta of 0.17, meaning that its share price is 83% less volatile than the S&P 500.

GSK currently has a consensus target price of GBX 1,525, suggesting a potential upside of 4.85%. AstraZeneca has a consensus target price of GBX 8,380, suggesting a potential downside of 21.14%. Given GSK's higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe GSK is more favorable than AstraZeneca.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
GSK
1 Sell rating(s)
1 Hold rating(s)
2 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.25
AstraZeneca
0 Sell rating(s)
1 Hold rating(s)
3 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.75

Summary

AstraZeneca beats GSK on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding AZN and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

This chart shows the average media sentiment of LON and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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AZN vs. The Competition

MetricAstraZenecaDrug Manufacturers IndustryMedical SectorLON Exchange
Market Cap£204.45B£78.82B£5.57B£3.01B
Dividend Yield1.23%2.50%5.25%5.02%
P/E Ratio29.1323.2027.18149.15
Price / Sales3.05165.16417.49254,247.77
Price / Cash38.8917.5937.0627.97
Price / Book4.043.118.084.57
Net Income£8.71B£3.43B£3.16B£5.90B
7 Day Performance4.14%1.38%3.77%7.46%
1 Month Performance-1.70%-2.36%3.90%11.33%
1 Year Performance-12.02%-0.02%34.22%81.12%

AstraZeneca Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
AZN
AstraZeneca
1.9614 of 5 stars
£106.26
+2.5%
GBX 8,380
-21.1%
-13.2%£204.45B£66.95B29.1383,500Analyst Forecast
GSK
GSK
2.0411 of 5 stars
GBX 1,395.50
+0.4%
GBX 1,725
+23.6%
-5.6%£56.63B£31.14B22.5470,212Analyst Forecast
ITH
Ithaca Energy
N/AGBX 152.92
-0.1%
N/A+31.9%£3.19B£3.55B17.46220
SOPH
Sophos Group plc (SOPH.L)
N/AN/AN/AN/A£2.99B£726.90M341.41520
HCM
HUTCHMED
N/AGBX 226
-1.3%
N/A-13.5%£2.45B£771.01M-57.681,760
INDV
Indivior
2.5172 of 5 stars
GBX 1,145
+2.0%
GBX 1,650
+44.1%
+46.2%£1.79B£1.40B-949.371,000
GRI
Grainger
3.6916 of 5 stars
GBX 207.50
-0.7%
GBX 317.50
+53.0%
-12.6%£1.53B£276.05M-1,383.33372Dividend Increase
SLS
Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust
N/AN/AN/AN/A£715.41M£222.48M3.3710
ERGO
Ergomed
N/AN/AN/AN/A£701.00M£152.09M4,641.386
SLN
Silence Therapeutics
N/AN/AN/AN/A£480.35M£11.35M-11.01100News Coverage
High Trading Volume
AMYT
Amryt Pharma
N/AN/AN/AN/A£457.11M£210.24M-4.33290Gap Down

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This page (LON:AZN) was last updated on 7/10/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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