Woodford slashes long-term holding in AstraZeneca

From top holding to 1% in 12 months

Neil Woodford, manager of the £6.6bn Woodford Equity Income fund, has significantly reduced exposure to former top holding AstraZeneca in order to invest in areas where he feels valuations are more attractive, such as domestic names.

Exposure to the pharmaceutical company has been gradually reduced over the past 12 months, moving from being its top holding representing 8% of the portfolio in April 2017 to just 1%, now making it the 30th position in descending size order out of 120 stocks. Since the fund was launched in 2014, AstraZeneca has returned 26.5%, said the firm, making it the fifth biggest contributor to the total return of the portfolio over that timeframe. However, the company has suffered a number of obstacles recently, falling 16% in just one day on 27 July 2017 after a major setback in one of its dru...