AstraZeneca earnings: third quarter 2026

AstraZeneca's sales rose 7% to $16.2bn in the third quarter, led by its cancer medicines, while profit grew much faster than sales. Less of that profit arrived as cash, and debt rose. The company kept its full-year forecasts unchanged and announced a three-year restructuring that it expects to cost up to $2.0bn and save $1.5bn a year. ¹

Against what analysts expected

On its adjusted Core measure, AstraZeneca earned $2.79 a share, about 7% above the $2.60 average of three analysts' forecasts on Nasdaq's earnings calendar; on the reported measure, which includes one-off and accounting items, it earned $2.02, below that average, so the comparison depends on the measure. ¹²

The strong points

• Cancer medicines, now nearly half of all sales, grew 17% and more than made up for falling sales of older heart and diabetes drugs. ¹
• On the company's own adjusted 'Core' measure, earnings per share rose 17% to $2.79, more than twice as fast as sales. ¹
• The company's Core operating margin, the profit from running the business on each dollar of sales by its own adjusted measure, rose 3 points to 36%. ¹

The weak points

• Cash from running the business fell 11% over nine months to $10.9bn, even as operating profit rose. ¹
• Cash left after running the business and investing in it fell 37% over nine months to $4.3bn, as spending on rights to new medicines rose. ¹
• Net debt rose by about $2.5bn this year to $25.8bn, and the cost of carrying it went up 10%. ¹

What the company expects

• AstraZeneca kept its forecast that full-year 2026 sales will grow by a mid-to-high single-digit percentage at constant exchange rates; it is up 7% so far. ¹
• It also kept its forecast for Core earnings per share to grow by a low double-digit percentage this year, although nine-month growth is already 14%. ¹

Our verdict on the quarter

A strong report. Forecasts for the year were kept, adjusted profit per share came in above what analysts expected and both sales and profit grew, held back only by weaker cash generation and rising debt.

The results as published

• The results release itself
• The filing it came with (SEC)

Notes

1. AstraZeneca's results release, 30 October 2026: sec.gov. ↩
2. Nasdaq's earnings calendar, 30 October 2026. ↩