Deutsche stands by 'top pick' rating on AstraZeneca

Analysts at Deutsche Bank reiterated their 'buy' rating and 6,900p target price on British-Swedish pharmaceutical outfit AstraZeneca on Monday.

With first-quarter sales and EPS 3% and 5% ahead of consensus, as well product sales trending "well above" management's guidance for high single-digit growth for 2019, Deutsche lauded the group's "strong start" to the year.

Deutsche said AZN's strong performance was "broad-based, with solid performance across the portfolio", thanks, in part, to its "very strong emerging markets sales".

Most importantly, the German bank highlighted the substantial year-on-year improvement in Astra's pre-collaboration/other income margins, something which it felt had "significantly exceeded expectations".

Although the investment bank noted that AstraZeneca's guidance remained unchanged and consensus changes were likely to be "modest at this stage", the analysts believed the firm's performance was "likely to provide comfort to investors" over its ability to meet consensus expectations for medium-term margin improvements.

"This should ultimately lead to substantially improved cash-flow generation, easing fears raised by the recent equity raise," said Deutsche, which kept AZN as its top pick due to its high visibility above peer group growth.