UPDATE 2-AstraZeneca shares off 4 pct after results

* Q4 net income declines

* Q4 revenues miss expectations

* Shares down more than 4 percent

(Adds details)

LONDON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - British drugmaker AstraZeneca (AZN.L) on Thursday posted lower fourth-quarter operating profits, announced 6,000 job cuts and issued a cautious 2009 sales outlook, sending shares down more than 4 percent.

The company said asset impairment charges including a $115 million charge in relation to Pulmicort Respules hit core profits, and reported profits were also hit by writedowns relating to future royalty forecasts at MedImmune, including its HPV vaccines.

It reported sales of $8.2 billion for the quarter, missing the $8.3 billion average forecast of analysts polled by Reuters, impacted by exchange rates.

"Despite a large pipeline of potential drugs to hit the market, the lack of sales growth forecast for 2009 is likely to spook the market," said Manoj Ladwa, derivatives broker at ETX Capital.

Analyst Simon Mather at WestLB said: "It appears that AstraZeneca booked a substantial amount of restructuring costs in the quarter... which in combination with higher-than-expected costs contributed to a gross margin of 74.2 percent.... substantially below our expectations of 79.6 percent."

The company reported core earnings per share in the quarter up 6 percent to $1.25 on a constant currency basis, almost in line with a consensus of analysts polled by Reuters of $1.26.

On an as-reported basis, operating profits fell to $1.89 billion from $1.93 billion.

AstraZeneca said it expected core earnings per share for 2009 to be in the range of $5.15 to $5.45.

While competitors Pfizer (PFE.N) and Wyeth WYE.N announced one of the drug industry's biggest mergers earlier this month, Brennan told reporters on a conference call that he sees more opportunities for consolidation but large acquisitions were not his strategy.

Sales of heartburn drug Nexium rose by 6 percent to $1.324 billion in the quarter, and cholesterol drug Crestor rose by 30 percent to $987 million. Bipolar drug Seroquel saw sales rise by 10 percent to $1.16 billion.

The company also confirmed that it was abandoning its line of cannabinoid 1 receptor antagonists, following on from similar moves announced by Sanofi-Aventis (SASY.PA) and Pfizer [ID:nL6480478].

Shares in AstraZeneca have risen by around 30 percent in the past year, against the FTSE 100 index which has fallen by about 28 percent. The shares were trading down 4.2 percent at 2,740 pence at 1309 GMT

(Reporting by Ben Deighton; Editing by Michael Kahn and Hans Peters)