Calamos Advisors LLC Cuts Holdings in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Calamos Advisors LLC lessened its stake in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 26.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 988,915 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 359,419 shares during the quarter. Calamos Advisors LLC’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $27,670,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in PFE. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Pfizer during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,129,927,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Pfizer by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 239,209,768 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $6,886,849,000 after buying an additional 11,099,024 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Pfizer by 8.8% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 104,246,432 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,985,783,000 after acquiring an additional 8,473,686 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of Pfizer by 13.8% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 68,506,441 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,972,300,000 after acquiring an additional 8,298,920 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Pfizer in the 1st quarter valued at about $172,902,000. 68.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PFE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of Pfizer from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $28.00 to $34.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Pfizer from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Pfizer from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Pfizer from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Daiwa America raised Pfizer from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $34.54.

Pfizer Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:PFE traded up $0.12 during trading on Friday, reaching $28.90. The company had a trading volume of 21,885,329 shares, compared to its average volume of 39,008,852. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.60. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $28.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $27.97. Pfizer Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.20 and a fifty-two week high of $36.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $163.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -481.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.69.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.14. Pfizer had a negative net margin of 4.66% and a positive return on equity of 8.42%. The company had revenue of $13.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.96 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.67 EPS. Pfizer’s revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.68 EPS for the current year.

Pfizer Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 26th will be issued a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.81%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 26th. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio is presently -2,800.00%.

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.