Pfizer Inc. $PFE Position Cut by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company decreased its position in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,364,482 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 148,253 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $81,017,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Pfizer in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,830,986,000. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in Pfizer by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 529,670,433 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $12,754,464,000 after acquiring an additional 31,412,883 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in Pfizer by 19.2% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 89,113,604 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,218,929,000 after acquiring an additional 14,342,946 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Pfizer by 38.9% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 48,514,971 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,208,023,000 after acquiring an additional 13,581,757 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of Pfizer by 577.5% in the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 8,786,084 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $218,817,000 after purchasing an additional 7,489,189 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.36% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on PFE. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Pfizer from $34.00 to $30.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Pfizer from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Pfizer from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Guggenheim dropped their price target on shares of Pfizer from $35.00 to $31.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised shares of Pfizer from an “underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $25.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $28.28.

Pfizer Trading Up 2.0%

Shares of Pfizer stock opened at $28.53 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $25.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.27. Pfizer Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $23.58 and a fifty-two week high of $28.75. The firm has a market cap of $162.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.54 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.09. Pfizer had a return on equity of 19.63% and a net margin of 6.80%.The firm had revenue of $15.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.78 earnings per share. Pfizer’s revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Pfizer has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.800-3.000 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pfizer Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Friday, July 24th will be issued a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 24th. Pfizer’s payout ratio is presently 226.32%.

About Pfizer

Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) is a multinational biopharmaceutical company headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1849 by Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart, the company researches, develops, manufactures and commercializes a broad range of medicines and vaccines for human health. Its activities span discovery research, clinical development, regulatory affairs, manufacturing and global commercial distribution across multiple therapeutic areas.

Pfizer’s portfolio and pipeline cover oncology, immunology, cardiology, endocrinology, rare diseases, hospital acute care and anti-infectives, along with a substantial vaccine business.