AstraZeneca (AZN) To Cut 10,400 Jobs

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca plc (NYSE: AZN) reported that the company will eliminate 10,400 jobs over the next four years.

The Anglo-Swedish drug maker's recent returns have been quite strong and the company increased its dividend by 12% to $2.30 per share, but the coming years may see a slowdown in growth.

AstraZeneca's 4th quarter profit rose to $1.55 billion, or $1.07 per share, from $1.25 billion, or 86 cents per share. Revenue rose to $8.95 billion from $8.19 billion.

"Despite what we believe are good fiscal 2009 results, AstraZeneca's 2010 outlook cast shadows with a mid single-digit sales decline and a core EPS below 2009 level," said Standard & Poor equity analyst Sho Matsubara.

Although sales were up due to sales of the H1N1 pandemic flu vaccine and generic drug makers having difficulty manufacturing the blood pressure drug Toprol-XL, overall sales in the US market would have fallen 5% without these two occurrences.

The anticipated slowdown in growth was reflected in a poll of analysts conducted by FactSet that revealed analysts were expecting 2010 sales of $32.28 billion and 2011 sales of $32.14 billion compared to sales of $32.8 billion in 2009.