Empowered Funds LLC Lowers Stake in Pfizer Inc. $PFE

Empowered Funds LLC decreased its position in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 31.2% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 432,816 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 196,319 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $10,491,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of PFE. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 856.8% during the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 20,053,828 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $508,164,000 after acquiring an additional 17,957,928 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Pfizer by 43.4% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 52,090,403 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,265,277,000 after purchasing an additional 15,758,846 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Pfizer in the first quarter valued at approximately $389,861,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Pfizer by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 533,363,457 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $12,928,730,000 after buying an additional 10,198,330 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in Pfizer by 51.9% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 26,456,457 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $670,407,000 after buying an additional 9,041,990 shares during the period. 68.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PFE has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wall Street Zen cut Pfizer from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 28th. Scotiabank started coverage on Pfizer in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $30.00 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Pfizer from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $28.00 price target on shares of Pfizer in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pfizer has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $28.28.

Pfizer Price Performance

PFE stock opened at $25.45 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $24.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The stock has a market cap of $144.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.54, a PEG ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.54. Pfizer Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $20.92 and a fifty-two week high of $27.69.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $16.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.94 billion. Pfizer had a net margin of 16.84% and a return on equity of 21.42%. Pfizer has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.000-3.150 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pfizer Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 7th will be given a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 7th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.8%. Pfizer’s payout ratio is 100.00%.

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.