AstraZeneca shares down 3% after rating cut, UK investment pause

By Maggie Fick and Danilo Masoni

LONDON (Reuters) -AstraZeneca shares fell as much as 3.4% on Monday, their steepest drop since May, after Handelsbanken cut its rating on the drugmaker and Reuters reported the company had paused a major investment in its home market.

The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical group's stock underperformed the broader European healthcare index, which was down less than 1% at 11 GMT. Handelsbanken lowered its recommendation on AstraZeneca to "hold" from "buy", citing what it sees as an overly optimistic target of $80 billion in total revenue by 2030.

Britain's biggest listed company became the latest drugmaker to pull back on its business in the country after it paused a planned 200 million pound ($272.12 million) investment in its Cambridge research centre, a spokesperson told Reuters late on Friday. The move comes as a blow to Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's state visit to Britain this week.

Shares were down 2.7% at 1100 GMT.

AstraZeneca, which has a robust drug pipeline of blockbuster cancer medicines, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

($1 = 0.7350 pounds)

(Reporting by Maggie Fick and Danilo Masoni, Editing by Louise Heavens)