AstraZeneca Full-Year and Q4 2018 Results

[Arborbridge]

Generally all the important data you need is in the accounts. They still have to disclose the actual EPS figure even though they do their best to distract from it.

The sad thing is that they have managed to con the financial journalists to report the concocted EPS figure as if it is the real one. Another good reason to treat financial journalists and analysts with great scepticism.

I would guess that the reason is that there may still be circumstances where other effects on eps may be genuinely "special" - and this is where the obfuscation comes in. After a few years, one notices that the definition of one-off or special items becomes wider and therefore abused. For journalists or particularly for analysts I guess it's a judgement call.

Arb.

[Darka]

I've been concerned about the dividend coverage/growth for a while now, so I've taken the recent rising price to sell about 2/3rds of my holding.

I'll be deciding over the weekend as to where to reinvest the proceeds but should easily get a better yield and dividend growth.

[scrumpyjack]

The items that the drug companies exclude from 'core' eps go way beyond the usual exceptional items and they are types of expenses that occur every year and are a normal part of the cost of doing business, eg legal expenses, writing off development expenditure etc etc. The fact they occur every year demonstrates that they are neither extraordinary nor exceptional.