AstraZeneca Re-Confirms Forecast Following Goof (AZN)

Drug maker AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE: AZN) has issued a press release re-confirming the company’s December forecast following a load of bad data sent to analysts:

During a routine consensus collection process, confidential Company information was inadvertently embedded in a spreadsheet template sent to the sell-side analyst community that follows the Company. This information is out of date planning information, and does not represent the Company’s view of expected financial performance for the full year 2011 or for future periods.

The company reiterated that it expects earnings for the full 2011 fiscal year to be in the lower half of a range of $7.20-$7.40. AstraZeneca also said that its previously planning assumptions are unchanged.