Sandy Spring Bank Reduces Stock Holdings in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Sandy Spring Bank cut its position in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 6.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 35,486 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 2,650 shares during the quarter. Sandy Spring Bank’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $941,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 36.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 4,071,700 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $108,002,000 after buying an additional 1,080,822 shares in the last quarter. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 118.7% during the fourth quarter. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI now owns 294,764 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $7,820,000 after buying an additional 159,984 shares in the last quarter. NFJ Investment Group LLC boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 12.8% during the third quarter. NFJ Investment Group LLC now owns 384,571 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $11,129,000 after buying an additional 43,719 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 25.9% during the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 804,522 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $23,283,000 after buying an additional 165,611 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Pfizer during the third quarter worth $577,000. 68.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Ronald E. Blaylock acquired 19,457 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $25.65 per share, for a total transaction of $499,072.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 27,707 shares in the company, valued at approximately $710,684.55. This trade represents a 235.84 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on PFE. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Pfizer from $30.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Pfizer from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Tuesday. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Pfizer to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and set a $29.00 price objective on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $31.92.

Pfizer Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PFE opened at $26.20 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $26.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $27.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $148.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. Pfizer Inc. has a 52 week low of $24.48 and a 52 week high of $31.54.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.15. Pfizer had a net margin of 12.62% and a return on equity of 19.47%. The firm had revenue of $17.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.26 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.10 earnings per share. Pfizer’s revenue was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pfizer Profile

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.