Financial Survey: Pfizer (PFE) vs. Its Peers

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) is one of 903 public companies in the “Pharmaceuticals” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare Pfizer to related businesses based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Pfizer and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pfizer	6.80%	19.63%	8.46%
Pfizer Competitors	-2,299.79%	-222.96%	-17.44%

Risk and Volatility

Pfizer has a beta of 0.34, meaning that its share price is 66% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pfizer’s competitors have a beta of -3.18, meaning that their average share price is 418% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Pfizer and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pfizer	2	14	4	1	2.19
Pfizer Competitors	7588	13667	25464	997	2.42

Pfizer currently has a consensus price target of $28.28, indicating a potential upside of 1.63%. As a group, “Pharmaceuticals” companies have a potential upside of 33.34%. Given Pfizer’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Pfizer has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Pfizer and its competitors revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pfizer	$62.58 billion	$7.77 billion	36.61
Pfizer Competitors	$3.48 billion	$3.12 billion	542.48

Pfizer has higher revenue and earnings than its competitors. Pfizer is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

68.4% of Pfizer shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.6% of shares of all “Pharmaceuticals” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Pfizer shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.1% of shares of all “Pharmaceuticals” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Pfizer pays an annual dividend of $1.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.2%. Pfizer pays out 226.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Pharmaceuticals” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.8% and pay out 48.4% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Pfizer has raised its dividend for 16 consecutive years.

Summary

Pfizer beats its competitors on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

About Pfizer

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. It also provides medicines and vaccines in various therapeutic areas, such as biosimilars for chronic immune and inflammatory diseases under the Xeljanz, Enbrel, Inflectra, Litfulo, Velsipity, and Cibinqo brands; amyloidosis, hemophilia, endocrine diseases, and sickle cell disease under the Vyndaqel family, Oxbryta, BeneFIX, Somavert, Ngenla, and Genotropin brands; sterile injectable and anti-infective medicines under the Sulperazon, Medrol, Zavicefta, Zithromax, and Panzyga brands; and biologics, small molecules, immunotherapies, and biosimilars under the Ibrance, Xtandi, Inlyta, Bosulif, Mektovi, Padcev, Adcetris, Talzenna, Tukysa, Elrexfio, Tivdak, Lorbrena, and Braftovi brands. In addition, the company involved in the contract manufacturing business. It serves wholesalers, retailers, hospitals, clinics, government agencies, pharmacies, individual provider offices, retail pharmacies, and integrated delivery systems. The company has collaboration agreements with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; Astellas Pharma US, Inc.; Merck KGaA; and BioNTech SE. Pfizer Inc. was founded in 1849 and is headquartered in New York, New York.