AstraZeneca's Stock Falls More Than 4% Following Q4 Print

Shares of AstraZeneca plc (ADR) (NYSE: AZN) were trading lower by more than 4 percent early Thursday morning after the company reported its fourth quarter results.AstraZeneca said that it earned $0.94 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $6.39 billion. Wall Street analysts were expecting the company to earn $0.88 per share on revenue of $6.27 billion.For the full fiscal year, AstraZeneca earned $4.26 per share on revenue of $24.708 billion. The company' highlighted its Growth Platforms which grew by 11 percent and represented 57 percent of total sales. However, AstraZeneca guided its revenue and earnings per share to both decline by a low to mid single-digit percentage point in 2016. The company attributed the poor outlook to the transitional period of patent expiry in the U.S. for its top-selling cholesterol drug, Crestor.Pascal Soriot, Chief Executive Officer, commenting on the results said: "Our culture of innovation continued to drive R&D productivity, with six regulatory approvals in the year. This momentum will continue in 2016 as we anticipate six regulatory submissions and around ten major data readouts. We strengthened the strategic importance of Oncology, bringing to patients next-generation therapies such as Tagrisso in lung cancer and Lynparza in ovarian cancer, as well as a promising immuno-oncology pipeline. Alongside this organic progress, we also continued to invest in our main therapy areas through key agreements with Acerta Pharma, ZS Pharma, and Takeda,"