AstraZeneca’s (AZN) third quarter earnings came in at $1.68 per American Depositary Shares (ADS), well above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.36 and $1.32 reported in the year-ago period. Revenues increased 10% at constant exchange rates (CER) to $8.2 billion compared to the same period last year. The primary reasons for the increase in revenues were strong US sales of Toprol-XL benefiting from generic withdrawal, US sales of its H1N1 vaccine and robust growth in emerging markets. AstraZeneca recorded strong sales across all geographies. Sales in North America, Emerging Markets and Established Markets increased (at CER) by 13%, 15% and 4%, respectively. The company expects double-digit revenue growth in Emerging Markets for the full year. Among the product categories, apart from gastrointestinal and oncology, which recorded sales decline of 1% and 10% respectively, all other segments increased their revenues. AstraZeneca recorded more than 26% of ...

Par Pharmaceutical Companies, Inc. (PRX) has surprised on the Zacks Consensus Estimate 3 out of the last 4 quarters by an average of 101.93%. With earnings estimates jumping, the company has a PEG ratio of just 0.2.

Company Description

Par Pharmaceutical manufactures generic drugs and branded pharmaceuticals for the specialty markets. The company ranks among the top ten in generic drug sales in the United States.

The branded division, Strativa Pharmaceuticals, was launched in 2005 and has licensed 4 proprietary drugs that are in development.

Third Quarter Zacks Consensus Estimate Rises

As the third quarter earnings report scheduled for Nov 5 approaches, analysts are becoming more bullish on Par.

In just the last week, 3 out of 8 covering analysts have raised estimates by 3 cents to 47 cents per share. That is a 74% increase in the estimate in the last 3 months.

The full year Zacks Consensus

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Par Pharmaceutical Companies, Inc. (PRX) received a brokerage firm upgrade today, which is helping it to gain during a rather muted morning session.

< ?DART(15);?> In addition, PRX has been enjoying rising earnings estimates that have pushed the 2009 and 2010 Zacks Consensus Estimates higher in just the past 7 days.

The company made the Zacks #1 Rank Top Performers List for Thursday with shares that are up approximately 4.4%. Volume is at 716,000 shares; above the daily average of 301,000.

Par Pharmaceutical develops, manufactures and markets generic drugs and innovative branded pharmaceuticals for specialty markets.

It is part of the Medical-Generic Drugs industry. There are 3 other names from this space on today's Zacks #1 Rank List: Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. (RDY), Hi-Tech Pharmacal Company, Inc. (HITK) and Impax Laboratories, Inc. (IPXL).

Earnings Estimates

For this year,

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - June 29, 2009 - Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: AstraZeneca (AZN), Darden Restaurants, Inc. (DRI), Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW), Stein Mart (SMRT) and Shire (SHPGY).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Friday's Analyst Blog:

AstraZeneca's Pipeline Must Deliver

We currently rate shares of AstraZeneca (AZN) a Hold with a $47 price target. The company is facing a number of challenges as it enters 2009, most notably generic competition to Toprol-XL, Nexium, Casodex and Pulmicort.

The just-announced increase

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We currently rate shares of AstraZeneca (AZN) a Hold with a $47 price target. The company is facing a number of challenges as it enters 2009, most notably generic competition to Toprol-XL, Nexium, Casodex and Pulmicort.The just-announced increase to the cost-cutting program will aid EPS in the near-term, but we do not believe this will be enough to compensate for continued revenue deterioration beyond 2010. Atacand and Arimidex will both be subject to generic competition in 2010, then Seroquel and Symbicort lose U.S. patent protection in 2011 and 2012, respectively. This puts significantly more pressure on the company to commercialize its late-stage pipeline.The MedImmune acquisition significantly beefs up the company's pipeline, which should aid in this effort through its sizeable biologics platform. We expect management to continue to look for additional licensing and outsourcing opportunities in order to reduce operating leverage and ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - May 4, 2009 - Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Sepracor, Inc. (SEPR), Raytheon Co. (RTN), AstraZeneca PLC (AZN), GATX Corporation (GMT) and Tetra Tech, Inc. (TTEK).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=4579.

Here are highlights from Friday's Analyst Blog:

Sepracor Building a Base

Business fundamentals at Sepracor, Inc. (SEPR) have been poor over the past several quarters. Lunesta growth disappointed throughout 2008 and guidance for 2009 assumes sales will decline between 5% and 10%.

Likewise, Xopenex and Xopenex HFA also disappointed

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We currently rate shares of AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) a Hold with a $38 price target. The company is facing a number of challenges as it enters 2009, most notably generic competition to Toprol-XL, Nexium, Casodex, and Pulmicort.The just-announced increase to the cost-cutting program will aid EPS in the near-term, but we do not believe this will be enough to compensate for continued revenue deterioration beyond 2010. Atacand and Arimidex will both be subject to generic competition in 2010, then Seroquel and Symbicort lose U.S. patent protection in 2011 and 2012, respectively. This puts significantly more pressure on the company to commercialize its late-stage pipeline.The MedImmune acquisition significantly beefs up the company's pipeline, which should aid in this effort through its sizable biologics platform. We expect management to continue to look for additional licensing and outsourcing opportunities in order to reduce operating leverage and offset ...

We currently rate shares of AstraZeneca plc (AZN) a Hold with a $38 price target. The company is facing a number of challenges as it enters 2009, most notably generic competition to Toprol-XL, Nexium, Casodex and Pulmicort.The just-announced increase to the cost-cutting program will aid EPS in the near-term, but we do not believe this will be enough to compensate for continued revenue deterioration beyond 2010. Atacand and Arimidex will both be subject to generic competition in 2010, then Seroquel and Symbicort lose U.S. patent protection in 2011 and 2012, respectively. This puts significantly more pressure on the company to commercialize its late-stage pipeline.The MedImmune acquisition significantly beefs up the company's pipeline, which should aid in this effort through its sizeable biologics platform. We expect management to continue to look for additional licensing and outsourcing opportunities in order to reduce operating leverage and offset ...