White Pine Capital LLC Purchases 6,196 Shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

White Pine Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 47.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,234 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,196 shares during the quarter. White Pine Capital LLC’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $510,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of PFE. State Street Corp increased its stake in Pfizer by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 290,460,600 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $8,405,930,000 after purchasing an additional 3,405,539 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $3,766,366,000 after buying an additional 12,864,343 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 1.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 117,666,245 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $3,392,342,000 after buying an additional 1,855,419 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of Pfizer by 22.4% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 38,068,879 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,101,713,000 after acquiring an additional 6,977,587 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Pfizer by 28.5% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 21,286,805 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $564,739,000 after acquiring an additional 4,726,549 shares in the last quarter. 68.36% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on PFE shares. StockNews.com lowered Pfizer from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $33.00 price target on shares of Pfizer in a report on Monday. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Pfizer from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Pfizer in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $32.00 target price for the company. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Pfizer from $30.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $31.92.

Pfizer Price Performance

Pfizer stock opened at $25.64 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $26.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $27.63. Pfizer Inc. has a 12 month low of $24.48 and a 12 month high of $31.54. The company has a market cap of $145.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.18, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.10 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 EPS for the current year.

Pfizer Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 24th will be paid a $0.43 dividend. This is an increase from Pfizer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 24th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.71%. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 121.99%.

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.