5 Most Valuable Companies in Europe

4. AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN)

Market Cap: $176 billion
Revenue: $26.62 billion

AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) has gained substantial popularity and momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic after succeeding to become one of the first healthcare companies to release and receive approval for a vaccine.

The company’s COVID-19 vaccine has generated over $275 million in sales in the first quarter of 2021, up by 15% on the year. Overall, AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) has reported total sales worth $7.32 billion in the quarter representing a 15% year-over-year increase. In addition, its core earnings rose to $1.63 per share, showing a jump of approximately 55% on the year.

In addition, AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) has recently got clearance from the European Commission for the acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals.

Baron Health Care Fund highlighted AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) in its Q4 2020 investor letter. Here is what the fund stated:

“AstraZeneca PLC is a multinational pharmaceutical company developing drugs across multiple therapeutic areas such as oncology and respiratory diseases. Shares were impacted by news of AstraZeneca’s joint development with Oxford University of a viral-based COVID-19 vaccine. Given a mixed data set due to an unforeseen error in dosing that occurred in the Brazilian market, the vaccine timelines slipped, hurting share performance. Our investment thesis on AstraZeneca is not dependent on COVID-19 but rather its best-in-class large-cap growth profile, and we retain conviction.”

At the end of March, there were 34 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey holding $2.66 billion worth of AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ:AZN) shares, down from 41 funds and $2.98 billion worth of stock, respectively, a quarter earlier.