How to buy AstraZeneca (AZN) stock

Use our step-by-step guide to learn how to buy AZN stock and compare the best AstraZeneca trading platforms.
By:  & 
Updated: Mar 6, 2023
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A big part of learning how to buy AstraZeneca stocks is finding the best place to make your investment. AstraZeneca stocks are available to invest in through an online stock broker, and it usually takes just a few minutes to buy shares in AstraZeneca when following our step by step guide.

Where to buy AstraZeneca stock?

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The best stock trading platform to use to buy AstraZeneca stock is eToro .

Based on our research, we’ve ranked the top three brokers where you can buy AstraZeneca shares, according to how easy they are to use, how low their fees are, their safety and security rating, and average customer reviews.

1
Min. Deposit
$ 10
Best offer
User Score
10
Up to $240 bonus!
Deposit with ACA, Wire, Pay with my bank
Invest for dividends and get payout on stocks on Ex-Dividend day
Start Trading
Payment Methods:
Bank Transfer, Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal, Wire Transfer
Full Regulations:
CySEC, FCA

77% of retail CFD accounts lose money.

2
Min. Deposit
$ 100
Best offer
User Score
9.8
Trade +2000 CFDs on Shares, Options, Commodities & more
Unlimited risk-free Demo Account
0 commissions & attractive spreads with up to 1:5 leverage
Start Trading
Payment Methods:
American Express, Apple Pay, Bank Transfer, Credit Card, Debit Card, Discover, Google Pay, Mastercard, PayPal, SEPA, Trustly, Visa, , skrill
Full Regulations:
ASIC, FCA, FSA, MAS, cysec-250-14-regulator, isa-regulator

Buy or sell stock CFDs with Plus500. 82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Read more about how we test, rank & review platforms.

How to buy stock in AstraZeneca in 3 simple steps

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Buying AstraZeneca stock is quick and easy, all you need is an internet connection and a copy of your photo ID. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1. Sign up to eToro

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eToro is the best stock trading platform for beginners. Fill in your details to set up a brokerage account and attach a copy of your ID to verify it.

1
Min. Deposit
$ 10
Best offer
User Score
10
Up to $240 bonus!
Deposit with ACA, Wire, Pay with my bank
Invest for dividends and get payout on stocks on Ex-Dividend day
Start Trading
Payment Methods:
Bank Transfer, Credit Card, Debit Card, PayPal, Wire Transfer
Full Regulations:
CySEC, FCA

77% of retail CFD accounts lose money.

Step 2. Make a deposit

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Transfer money to your new account with your credit or debit card, a bank transfer, or an alternative payment method, like PayPal. The minimum deposit is £10.

Step 3. Buy AstraZeneca shares

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Search for AstraZeneca using the ticker, AZN. Click the ‘trade’ button and enter the details of your investment, such as how many shares you want to buy or how much you want to spend. Hit ‘trade now’ to invest in AstraZeneca and complete your purchase.

It’s as easy as that! You can buy AstraZeneca shares in just 10-15 minutes and now you’re a AstraZeneca shareholder.

Compare the best platforms to buy AstraZeneca stock

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1. eToro. Best for beginners, copy-trading & demo-account

2900

No. assets

$10

Minimum deposit

Stocks

Platform type

Pros & Cons

Great for beginners, simple to set up and get started Zero commission stock trading Popular ‘CopyTrader’ function lets you follow top traders Excellent customer service, with live chat support provided Over 2,000 CFDs available to trade
Comparatively high fees for withdrawals and account inactivity Does not integrate with the MetaTrader platform High spreads on some assets

Overview

We love eToro because you can trade more than 3,000 stocks, commission free. When you buy stocks on eToro, you’re buying the underlying asset, which means you can earn dividends. Or you can trade fractional shares, which means you can invest in even the most expensive stock from just $10.

As well as being a broker that offers lots of investor protection, eToro offers a very social trading experience. You can easily see what’s trending on the stock market every day, browse the latest analyst opinion about every one of those stocks, and copy other people’s trade suggestions from your desktop or the eToro app.

The fees: Stock and ETF trades are commission free. Stock CFDs are charged a 0.15% spread and overnight fees can apply. You can deposit money for free but you have to pay $5 per withdrawal, and there’s a minimum withdrawal of $30. A $10 per month activity fee is charged if you don’t log in for a year.

77% of retail CFD accounts lose money.

2. Plus500. Best for international CFD trading*

4300

No. assets

$100

Minimum deposit

Stocks

Platform type

Pros & Cons

Can get a free demo account A great mobile platform Well regulated in multiple jurisdictions Wide variety of CFDs to trade Several good risk management tools
No support on trading information and education Website isn’t brilliantly designed to help users find answers to their questions No MetaTrader trading platform compatibility

Overview

We love Plus500 because it is one of the industry’s most transparent and reliable brokers. Its fees are clear and you’ll know exactly what you will be paying before you make a trade. Its technology driven platform gives access to CFDs on over 2000 stocks.

Plus500 has something for all types of stock trader, no matter what level of experience. Its zero commission and tight spreads make it a top choice for day traders and its trading academy is packed with educational content, perfect for beginners just starting.

For accurate instrument availability, visit plus500.com.

The fees: There are no commission fees on any trades with Plus500 and it makes it money through the Bid/Ask spread. Spread starts from 0.01% and varies depending on the instrument. Additional fees include overnight funding depending on trade size and guaranteed stop orders, which add a minimum of 10% to the spread. There is an inactivity charge of £10 per month for accounts not logged in for three months. 

*Based on a comparison of 60+ leading brokers and trading platforms.

Buy or sell stock CFDs with Plus500. 82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Fundamental analysis of AstraZeneca shares

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What is AstraZeneca’s total worth?

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AstraZeneca’s total net worth is £164.88 billion This is its total market capitalisation, calculated by multiplying the number of shares outstanding on a stock exchange by the current share price.

How has AstraZeneca’s share price performed in recent years?

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The current AstraZeneca stock price today is £107.84, which is 7.97% below its all time high of £118.86, which it reached on 13 January 2023. 

Overall, AZN is up 124.14% over the last five years. The AZN share price is down 6.95% in 2024 with a 52 week high of £118.86 and a 52 week low of £83.26.

What is AstraZeneca’s EPS?

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AstraZeneca’s EPS is £0.58. EPS stands for earnings per share and is calculated by dividing AstraZeneca’s net profit by the number of shares outstanding. It gives you an idea of how valuable a company is.

What is the AstraZeneca P/E ratio?

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AstraZeneca’s P/E ratio is 61.27. The P/E, or price to earnings ratio, tells you how much you would have to pay per share for $1 of AstraZeneca’s earnings. 

It is calculated by dividing the share price by the earnings per share. You can use AstraZeneca’s earnings estimates to predict its future (or forward) P/E and set a target price you think the stock can reach.

What is AstraZeneca’s dividend yield?

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AstraZeneca’s dividend yield is 2.23%. The dividend yield tells you how much of AstraZeneca’s share price it gives back to shareholders in dividend payments every year.

Is AstraZeneca stock a buy or sell?

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The indicator below shows you live technical ratings for AstraZeneca stock on time frames from one minute to one month. 

It tracks a selection of key technical indicators on live market data, including moving averages, relative strength index (RSI), oscillators, and momentum. 

This indicator should be used when you research AstraZeneca to help you decide whether to buy AstraZeneca shares. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. It is not investment advice or a recommendation from Invezz to buy this stock.

Is AstraZeneca a good investment for me? 

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The right answer is different for each person, so here is some information to help you decide whether to buy stocks in AstraZeneca.

  • AstraZeneca consistently develops new drug treatments. Pharmaceutical companies make most of their money from creating and patenting new drugs. They then have sole rights to sell a branded drug for a set period of time (usually 10 years). This monopoly power allows them to charge high prices and generate strong profits to reinvest in creating new drugs.
  • It has a diverse portfolio of drugs and patents. Relying on one or two drugs can be risky, because when the patent runs out the company loses much of its pricing power. AstraZeneca has patented many different drugs, ensuring relatively stable revenue streams over time.
  • AstraZeneca produced one of the leading COVID-19 vaccines. It was one of the first companies to release a coronavirus vaccine in the west. Though demand – and the necessity – of the vaccine has fallen off since the height of the pandemic, there are still many places in the world that require it.
  • The company has a large geographic reach. AstraZeneca has a presence in 100+ countries around the world, which means it’s less susceptible to localised issues like poor economic performance.
  • Shareholders benefit from regular share buybacks and dividends. AstraZeneca stock offers a dividend yield of more than 2%, while the share price value is often boosted by buybacks, when the company spends some of its cash on buying its own shares to reduce the total number in circulation – and increase the value of those remaining.
  • There’s lots of competition from other pharmaceutical companies. It’s just one of many pharmaceutical companies, all of which spend billions of dollars a year on research and development. All are competing to produce the next big drug and with patent rules as they are, there’s a huge benefit to being first, and a big cost to missing out.
  • Big Pharma has to deal with lots of regulation. By its nature, any company in the medical profession has to deal with government regulation. The most notable form of oversight is that every drug has to be approved before it can be sold to the public. Failure to gain approval is bad news, and can have a major negative effect on the share price, while it’s very hard to predict ahead of time.

It’s always a good idea to think about any potential risks there might be as well. Use this summary of AstraZeneca’s pros and cons before you make a final decision on whether to buy AstraZeneca stock.

Pros

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  • AstraZeneca has lots of patented drugs with high pricing power
  • It’s a shareholder-friendly company that regularly engages in share buybacks and dividend payments
  • It was one of the first companies to develop a COVID-19 vaccine

Cons

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Are there other ways to buy shares in AstraZeneca?

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Yes, you can invest in AstraZeneca stock in a few different ways. One option is to buy stock in AstraZeneca directly through an investment platform as laid out above, while another popular choice is to invest in a fund. 

Mutual funds provide instant diversification to your investment portfolio by investing in lots of companies at once. You can invest in a FTSE 100 index fund to get exposure to AstraZeneca, or choose a pharmaceutical ETF.

Another option is to use a social copy trading platform, like eToro . Find a trader who you like and copy their AstraZeneca trades directly to your own account. 

This can be a good investment strategy for beginners and a way to learn how to buy AstraZeneca shares from someone with more experience.

What are the fees for investing in AstraZeneca stock?

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It depends on the stock broker. Some platforms charge a flat fee per trade, others charge a commission as a percentage of the total trade value each time you buy AstraZeneca stocks.

Consider that there may be other costs to trading too. Other fees can include deposit and withdrawal fees, or inactivity fees if you don’t use your account for three months or more. 

These are the trading platforms that charge the lowest fees for buying stocks in AstraZeneca.

Trading platformTrading fees
eToro $0
Skilling $0
Capital.com $0
Degiro $0 (US) / £1.75 (UK)
AvaTrade 0.13% commission

How to sell AstraZeneca stock

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When you decide the time is right to sell and lock in some profit (or cut your losses), log into your broker account and navigate to your portfolio. 

From there, find your AstraZeneca stock and you’ll see a ‘sell’ option next to it. Click that to set the details of the trade (you don’t have to sell all your stocks at once) and sell back to cash.

Should I buy AstraZeneca stock now?

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It’s your investing goals and style that define whether now is a good time to buy. The current AstraZeneca stock price plays into it but ultimately it depends on your investment horizons.

  • If you’re a short term trader: the goal is to make money by buying and selling stocks regularly to secure a profit or avoid a loss. That can mean trading hourly, daily, or weekly but the focus is always on the near future. Traders learn how to buy stocks in AstraZeneca based on short term technical analysis and don’t hold shares for a long time, so any time can be a good time to buy AZN.
  • If you’re a long term investor: you’re more interested in long term price appreciation than whether a stock is up or down on any given day. The important thing is finding a stock with a strong foundation where you think the share price will be up over a period of months or years. If you think AstraZeneca’s fundamentals are solid then the best time to invest in AstraZeneca stock is after a dip or a pullback in price.

Most new traders sit somewhere between these two positions. You don’t want to actively trade AstraZeneca stock all hours of the day but you don’t want to wait years for a return either.

Either way, following AZN price news and analysis will help you decide when to dip your toe into the market.

The FTSE 100 index had a strong performance this week as investors reacted to important UK earnings and the Federal Reserve and Bank of England (BoE) decisions. Some of the top earnings came from oil giants like BP and Shell.  The Federal Reserve and the BoE left interest rates unchanged at 5.5
AstraZeneca plc (LON: AZN) was in focus on Friday after the pharma giant announced a deal worth up to $1.0 billion with its U.S. peer Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE). Details of the AstraZeneca-Pfizer deal The London-listed firm is buying a group of preclinical gene therapies from Pfizer to expand its footpr
AstraZeneca (LON: AZN) share price has struggled in the past few weeks as concerns about its cancer drug. After soaring to a record high of 12,350 in April, the stock has plunged by ~14% to 10,650, meaning it has moved into a correction.  AstraZeneca earnings ahead AstraZeneca is one of the biggest
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FAQs

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Is AstraZeneca stock overvalued?
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Sources & references
Risk disclaimer
Charlie Hancox
Financial Writer
Charlie is a Financial Writer for Invezz. He covers commodities, cryptocurrencies, and breaking news. Prior to joining Invezz he helped grow Crux Investor into the fastest-growing... read more.
James Knight
Editor of Education
James is the Editor of Education for Invezz, where he covers topics from across the financial world, from the stock market, to cryptocurrency, to macroeconomic markets.... read more.