Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd Purchases 60,000 Shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 32.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 243,824 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 60,000 shares during the quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $7,056,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Pfizer in the 1st quarter valued at $315,000. Kennedy Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Pfizer during the first quarter worth about $3,992,000. Tidal Investments LLC increased its position in Pfizer by 6.8% during the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 317,384 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $8,808,000 after acquiring an additional 20,241 shares during the period. Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. bought a new position in Pfizer during the first quarter worth about $368,000. Finally, New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in Pfizer during the first quarter worth about $220,000. 68.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on PFE. Barclays increased their price target on Pfizer from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $45.00 price target on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI raised Pfizer to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com downgraded Pfizer from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Pfizer from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pfizer has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $32.92.

Pfizer Trading Down 1.6 %

NYSE PFE opened at $25.76 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. Pfizer Inc. has a twelve month low of $24.48 and a twelve month high of $31.54. The company has a market cap of $145.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 0.67. The business’s fifty day moving average is $28.05 and its 200 day moving average is $28.54.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.42. The company had revenue of $17.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.92 billion. Pfizer had a return on equity of 16.28% and a net margin of 7.07%. Pfizer’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.17) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pfizer Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th will be given a dividend of $0.42 per share. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio is currently 227.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Scott Gottlieb bought 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $28.24 per share, with a total value of $28,240.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $282,400. This trade represents a 11.11 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Pfizer Profile

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.