Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca PLC posted a net loss in the fourth quarter of 2021. Spending related to the acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals have negatively affected the company's performance.
So, in the last three months of 2021, the coronavirus vaccine developer posted a net loss of $347 million compared with a net profit of $1.01 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020. Losses per share were equal to 22 cents compared with earnings per share of 78 cents. At the same time, basic earnings per share (EPS) increased by 56% to $1.67. Market analysts predicted an increase to $1.50.
The pharmaceutical giant's quarterly revenue increased by 63% to $12.01 billion. In the fourth quarter of 2021, sales of the vaccine against COVID-19 amounted to $1.87 billion.
The day before, AstraZeneca management announced the start of a large-scale revision of the company's business. The reason for global changes in the corporation was the purchase of the American company Alexion Pharmaceuticals for $39 billion in 2020.
AstraZeneca named the main fields of development within its restructuring program, including the integration of production processes, enhancement of geographical presence, and distribution of investments. Experts predict that the company would spend $2 billion in total.
Over the past year, the company's revenue grew by 40% to $37.4 billion, while net profit decreased from $3.14 billion in 2020 to $115 million in 2021. Over the past year, the corporation's capitalization soared by 20% to $173.4 billion and sales grew by 38% to $37.42 billion.
As for the company's forecasts for the coming year, optimistic scenarios still prevail. Thus, representatives of AstraZeneca hope to see a 18%-19% increase in total revenue in 2022 as well as a rise in basic earnings per share by 24-29%.
Overall, the company expects sales to increase throughout 2022 despite forecasts that coronavirus vaccine sales will decline by 20-25% in the near future.
The long-awaited news for AstraZeneca shareholders was the message from the company's management that it has raised the amount of annual dividend payments by $0.10 to $2.90 per share for the first time in the last ten years.
At the time of writing, the value of AstraZeneca shares in the US stock market was growing by 3.7%.