Eastern Bank Sells 10,127 Shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Eastern Bank trimmed its holdings in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 9.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 97,339 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 10,127 shares during the quarter. Eastern Bank’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $2,582,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in Pfizer by 0.6% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 16,819,712 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $486,762,000 after acquiring an additional 100,900 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Pfizer by 11.0% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 130,143,942 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $3,766,366,000 after purchasing an additional 12,864,343 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of Pfizer by 80.9% in the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 508,256 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $14,709,000 after buying an additional 227,349 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC increased its position in Pfizer by 394.2% in the 3rd quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 52,238 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,512,000 after buying an additional 41,668 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its stake in Pfizer by 26.0% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,105,433 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $89,872,000 after buying an additional 639,985 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.36% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI upgraded Pfizer to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Pfizer in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Pfizer from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $32.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Guggenheim decreased their price objective on Pfizer from $35.00 to $33.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pfizer

In other news, Director Scott Gottlieb purchased 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was bought at an average price of $28.24 per share, for a total transaction of $28,240.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $282,400. The trade was a 11.11 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Pfizer Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:PFE opened at $26.79 on Tuesday. Pfizer Inc. has a 1 year low of $24.48 and a 1 year high of $31.54. The company has a market capitalization of $151.82 billion, a PE ratio of 36.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.64. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $26.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.04. 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 (NYSE:PFE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.42. The company had revenue of $17.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.17) earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Pfizer Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, January 24th will be paid a $0.43 dividend. This is an increase from Pfizer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 24th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.42%. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio is presently 232.43%.

Pfizer Company Profile

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.