AstraZeneca Stock Upgraded: What You Need to Know

Every day, Wall Street analysts upgrade some stocks, downgrade others, and "initiate coverage" on a few more. But do these analysts even know what they're talking about? Today, we're taking one high-profile Wall Street pick and putting it under the microscope...

Shares of U.K. drugmaker AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) are in a rut. In contrast to much larger big pharma peers like Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and Merck (NYSE: MRK), both of whose shares have been gaining, AstraZeneca stock is down more than 4% over the past year.

This means that, in a market that has risen nearly 15% over the same period, AstraZeneca stock was lagging the market by a good 20 percentage points as recently as early this morning. But then, a miracle happened -- investment banker Bernstein laid out a case for buying AstraZeneca stock, and the shares shot up 3% in response. According to the banker, AstraZeneca at $32 and change is priced to outperform the market, and shares are actually worth closer to $39.

Source: Fool.com