Financial Analysis: Pfizer (PFE) versus The Competition

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) is one of 902 public companies in the “Pharmaceuticals” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare Pfizer to similar businesses based on the strength of its valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, earnings and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Pfizer and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pfizer	2	14	4	1	2.19
Pfizer Competitors	7629	13676	25509	1009	2.42

Pfizer presently has a consensus price target of $28.39, indicating a potential downside of 1.00%. As a group, “Pharmaceuticals” companies have a potential upside of 28.62%. Given Pfizer’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Pfizer has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Dividends

Pfizer pays an annual dividend of $1.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.0%. Pfizer pays out 226.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Pharmaceuticals” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.6% and pay out 48.4% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Pfizer has raised its dividend for 16 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Pfizer and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pfizer	6.80%	19.63%	8.46%
Pfizer Competitors	-2,319.23%	-223.50%	-16.98%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Pfizer and its competitors revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pfizer	$62.58 billion	$7.77 billion	37.73
Pfizer Competitors	$16.11 billion	$3.13 billion	553.70

Pfizer has higher revenue and earnings than its competitors. Pfizer is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

68.4% of Pfizer shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.6% of shares of all “Pharmaceuticals” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Pfizer shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 14.1% of shares of all “Pharmaceuticals” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Pfizer has a beta of 0.34, meaning that its share price is 66% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pfizer’s competitors have a beta of -3.17, meaning that their average share price is 417% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Pfizer beats its competitors on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

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. It also provides medicines and vaccines in various therapeutic areas, such as biosimilars for chronic immune and inflammatory diseases under the Xeljanz, Enbrel, Inflectra, Litfulo, Velsipity, and Cibinqo brands; amyloidosis, hemophilia, endocrine diseases, and sickle cell disease under the Vyndaqel family, Oxbryta, BeneFIX, Somavert, Ngenla, and Genotropin brands; sterile injectable and anti-infective medicines under the Sulperazon, Medrol, Zavicefta, Zithromax, and Panzyga brands; and biologics, small molecules, immunotherapies, and biosimilars under the Ibrance, Xtandi, Inlyta, Bosulif, Mektovi, Padcev, Adcetris, Talzenna, Tukysa, Elrexfio, Tivdak, Lorbrena, and Braftovi brands. In addition, the company involved in the contract manufacturing business. It serves wholesalers, retailers, hospitals, clinics, government agencies, pharmacies, individual provider offices, retail pharmacies, and integrated delivery systems. The company has collaboration agreements with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; Astellas Pharma US, Inc.; Merck KGaA; and BioNTech SE. Pfizer Inc. was founded in 1849 and is headquartered in New York, New York.