Prospector Partners LLC Reduces Stock Position in Pfizer Inc. $PFE

Prospector Partners LLC cut its holdings in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 18.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 97,307 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 22,574 shares during the period. Prospector Partners LLC’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $2,479,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Pfizer in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,270,157,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Pfizer by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 533,363,457 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $12,928,730,000 after purchasing an additional 10,198,330 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in shares of Pfizer by 43.4% during the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 18,718,955 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $453,747,000 after purchasing an additional 5,662,309 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 75.0% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,689,103 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $221,398,000 after purchasing an additional 3,722,531 shares during the period. Finally, BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its position in shares of Pfizer by 84.9% in the second quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 7,561,946 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $183,302,000 after buying an additional 3,472,240 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PFE has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wolfe Research set a $24.00 target price on Pfizer and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Zacks Research cut shares of Pfizer from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Daiwa Securities Group downgraded shares of Pfizer from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $27.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Pfizer from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein restated a “market perform” rating and set a $30.00 price objective on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Friday, October 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $28.00.

Pfizer Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of PFE opened at $27.41 on Thursday. Pfizer Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $20.92 and a fifty-two week high of $27.94. The firm has a market cap of $155.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.15 and a beta of 0.47. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $25.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $25.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.09. Pfizer had a net margin of 12.42% and a return on equity of 20.25%. The company had revenue of $17.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.63 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Pfizer Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 23rd will be given a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 23rd. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.3%. Pfizer’s payout ratio is presently 126.47%.

Pfizer Profile

Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) is a multinational biopharmaceutical company headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1849 by Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart, the company researches, develops, manufactures and commercializes a broad range of medicines and vaccines for human health. Its activities span discovery research, clinical development, regulatory affairs, manufacturing and global commercial distribution across multiple therapeutic areas.

Pfizer’s portfolio and pipeline cover oncology, immunology, cardiology, endocrinology, rare diseases, hospital acute care and anti-infectives, along with a substantial vaccine business.