Wright Investors Service Inc. Increases Stock Position in Pfizer Inc. $PFE

Wright Investors Service Inc. increased its position in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 252.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 79,263 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 56,743 shares during the period. Wright Investors Service Inc.’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $1,974,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PFE. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 47.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 25,070,148 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $638,787,000 after buying an additional 8,108,887 shares in the last quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 203.8% during the third quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 9,012,811 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $229,346,000 after buying an additional 6,045,763 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 48.2% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 18,373,140 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $468,174,000 after buying an additional 5,978,927 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 120.9% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 9,505,615 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $230,986,000 after buying an additional 5,202,884 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 10.8% during the third quarter. Amundi now owns 41,490,929 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,096,380,000 after buying an additional 4,043,413 shares in the last quarter. 68.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on PFE. Guggenheim increased their price target on shares of Pfizer from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Pfizer from $27.00 to $26.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and set a $27.00 price objective on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. HSBC upped their price objective on shares of Pfizer from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group cut shares of Pfizer from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $27.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Pfizer currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $28.45.

Pfizer Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PFE opened at $27.22 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $27.27 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $154.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.01 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. Pfizer Inc. has a 52 week low of $21.87 and a 52 week high of $28.75.

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

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.