Van ECK Associates Corp Trims Stock Position in Pfizer Inc. $PFE

Van ECK Associates Corp trimmed its stake in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 20.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,156,540 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 4,744,499 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $462,629,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in PFE. Grey Fox Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Pfizer during the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Howard Hughes Medical Institute acquired a new stake in shares of Pfizer during the second quarter valued at about $30,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pfizer in the second quarter worth $32,000. Evelyn Partners Asset Management Ltd bought a new stake in Pfizer in the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC lifted its stake in Pfizer by 302.5% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 1,296 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 974 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.36% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on PFE. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $30.00 target price on shares of Pfizer in a research note on Monday. Wolfe Research set a $24.00 target price on shares of Pfizer and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Argus raised Pfizer from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Pfizer from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Pfizer presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $28.05.

Pfizer Trading Down 0.9%

Pfizer stock opened at $26.81 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $152.42 billion, a PE ratio of 19.71 and a beta of 0.47. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $26.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $25.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.16. Pfizer Inc. has a 52 week low of $20.92 and a 52 week high of $27.94.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.09. Pfizer had a net margin of 12.42% and a return on equity of 20.48%. The firm had revenue of $17.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.93 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.63 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Pfizer Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 23rd. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.4%. Pfizer’s payout ratio is currently 126.47%.

About Pfizer

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.