The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker was helped by sales of its key cancer drugs.
Sales of oncology medicines including Tagrisso rose by almost a quarter.
That helped take overall revenue to almost $11 billion, ahead of analyst expectations.
Core earnings also comfortably beat forecasts.
The London-listed firm lifted its outlook for the year as a result.
It now expects profits per share to jump by as much as a third.
Currency headwinds are a worry though.
Like Swiss peer Novartis, AstraZeneca reports its results in dollars.
Now the strength of the greenback is cutting the value of sales earned in other currencies.
AstraZeneca says its revenue growth will be hit by a "mid single-digit" percentage.
