Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Lowers Position in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 7.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 744,136 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 60,386 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $19,742,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PFE has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Pfizer from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com lowered Pfizer from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $29.00 price target on shares of Pfizer in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $33.00 price target on shares of Pfizer in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Wolfe Research began coverage on Pfizer in a research note on Friday, November 15th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $25.00 price target for the company. 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 given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $31.92.

Insider Transactions at Pfizer

In other news, Director Ronald E. Blaylock acquired 19,457 shares of Pfizer stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $25.65 per share, for a total transaction of $499,072.05. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 27,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $710,684.55. This trade represents a 235.84 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Pfizer Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of PFE stock opened at $26.62 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. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $26.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $27.21. Pfizer Inc. has a 1 year low of $24.48 and a 1 year high of $31.54. The company has a market cap of $150.89 billion, a PE ratio of 18.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.61.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.15. Pfizer had a return on equity of 19.47% and a net margin of 12.62%. The firm had revenue of $17.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.10 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Pfizer Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 24th were issued a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.46%. This is an increase from Pfizer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 24th. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio is presently 121.99%.

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.