Apexium Financial LP Increases Stake in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Apexium Financial LP raised its holdings in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 72.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 22,772 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,570 shares during the quarter. Apexium Financial LP’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $604,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in Pfizer by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC now owns 94,312 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,508,000 after purchasing an additional 5,632 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 61,517 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,780,000 after buying an additional 7,958 shares in the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Pfizer by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 206,418 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $5,476,000 after acquiring an additional 5,157 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management grew its stake in Pfizer by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 46,758 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,240,000 after acquiring an additional 3,078 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Regatta Capital Group LLC increased its holdings in Pfizer by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. Regatta Capital Group LLC now owns 15,594 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $414,000 after acquiring an additional 1,480 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.36% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Pfizer news, Director Scott Gottlieb acquired 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $28.24 per share, for a total transaction of $28,240.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at $282,400. This represents a 11.11 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of Pfizer from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Evercore ISI upgraded Pfizer to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Guggenheim dropped their price target on Pfizer from $35.00 to $33.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Pfizer in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $29.00 target price on shares of Pfizer in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $32.00.

Pfizer Price Performance

Shares of Pfizer stock opened at $26.86 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.73. Pfizer Inc. has a one year low of $24.48 and a one year high of $31.54. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $26.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $27.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $152.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.64.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.06 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 net margin of 7.07% and a return on equity of 16.28%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.17) earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Pfizer Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. This is a positive change from Pfizer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.40%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 24th. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio is currently 232.43%.

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.