Tower Bridge Advisors Grows Stake in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Tower Bridge Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 64,997 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 1,296 shares during the quarter. Tower Bridge Advisors’ holdings in Pfizer were worth $1,724,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Pfizer by 11.0% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 130,143,942 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $3,766,366,000 after acquiring an additional 12,864,343 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in Pfizer by 22.4% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 38,068,879 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,101,713,000 after purchasing an additional 6,977,587 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in Pfizer by 28.5% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 21,286,805 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $564,739,000 after purchasing an additional 4,726,549 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its position in Pfizer by 164.2% during the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 7,316,405 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $211,737,000 after purchasing an additional 4,546,809 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Pfizer by 226.7% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,209,907 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $179,715,000 after purchasing an additional 4,309,076 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.36% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Pfizer from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Pfizer in a research report on Friday, November 15th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $25.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com cut Pfizer from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Pfizer from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $29.00 target price on shares of Pfizer in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pfizer has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $31.92.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Ronald E. Blaylock bought 19,457 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $25.65 per share, for a total transaction of $499,072.05. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 27,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $710,684.55. This represents a 235.84 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Pfizer Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of Pfizer stock opened at $26.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.73. Pfizer Inc. has a 1 year low of $24.48 and a 1 year high of $31.54. The firm has a market cap of $149.78 billion, a PE ratio of 18.74, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $26.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $27.34.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.15. Pfizer had a net margin of 12.62% and a return on equity of 19.47%. The firm had revenue of $17.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.10 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pfizer Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 24th will be issued a $0.43 dividend. This is a boost from Pfizer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 24th. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio is presently 121.99%.

About Pfizer

Pfizer Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company offers medicines and vaccines in various therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular metabolic, migraine, and women's health under the Eliquis, Nurtec ODT/Vydura, Zavzpret, and the Premarin family brands; infectious diseases with unmet medical needs under the Prevnar family, Abrysvo, Nimenrix, FSME/IMMUN-TicoVac, and Trumenba brands; and COVID-19 prevention and treatment, and potential future mRNA and antiviral products under the Comirnaty and Paxlovid brands.