AstraZeneca's 1st-qtr results beat forecasts, with 39% leap in reported EPS

AstraZeneca was one of the few large European pharmaceutical companies to report strongly-improved earnings for the first quarter of 2009, as  the Anglo-Swedish drug major posted higher sales and profits for the  period, boosted to a large extent by increased revenues from its  cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor (rosuvastatin), as well as from  emerging markets business.

The company's turnover for the three months rose 7% on a constant  exchange rate basis to $7.7 billion, although this was flat as  reported. On an actual basis, operating profit rose 40% to $3.16  billion, with net profit rising a similar amount to $3.0 billion and  earnings per share 24% higher at $1.58. The latter beat the $1.41  consensus forecast of eight analysts polled by Bloomberg, but still saw  the firm's shares drop 2.4% to GBP23.85 on the day of the announcement,  April 30.