Ballast Inc. Acquires 4,398 Shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Ballast Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 15.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 32,148 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,398 shares during the period. Ballast Inc.’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $853,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ieq Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 15.6% in the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 224,636 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $6,285,000 after buying an additional 30,388 shares during the last quarter. Callan Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Pfizer by 16.7% during the second quarter. Callan Capital LLC now owns 17,845 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $499,000 after purchasing an additional 2,551 shares during the last quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Pfizer by 81.9% in the 2nd quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. now owns 84,412 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,362,000 after purchasing an additional 38,012 shares during the last quarter. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT boosted its position in Pfizer by 10.9% in the 2nd quarter. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT now owns 2,836,057 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $79,353,000 after buying an additional 279,825 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in shares of Pfizer by 2.8% during the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 739,236 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $20,684,000 after acquiring an additional 20,140 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.36% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PFE has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com cut Pfizer from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Pfizer in a report on Friday, November 15th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $25.00 price objective on the stock. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $29.00 price target on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Pfizer from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Pfizer in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $32.00 target price for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $32.00.

Pfizer Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE PFE opened at $26.30 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $26.08 and a 200-day moving average of $27.99. Pfizer Inc. has a 12 month low of $24.48 and a 12 month high of $31.54. The company has a market cap of $149.06 billion, a PE ratio of 35.55, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.42. The firm had revenue of $17.70 billion during 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.17) EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pfizer Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 24th will be issued a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 24th. This is an increase from Pfizer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 232.43%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Scott Gottlieb purchased 1,000 shares of Pfizer stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $28.24 per share, for a total transaction of $28,240.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $282,400. This trade represents a 11.11 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Pfizer 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.