Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Purchases 11,154 Shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 9.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 124,794 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,154 shares during the quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $3,162,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PFE. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Pfizer in the fourth quarter worth $2,328,986,000. Starboard Value LP purchased a new position in shares of Pfizer in the fourth quarter worth $407,730,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 307.5% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 10,046,340 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $254,574,000 after buying an additional 7,581,030 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 76,502,238 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,029,604,000 after buying an additional 5,350,381 shares in the last quarter. Finally, APG Asset Management N.V. lifted its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 1,106.0% in the fourth quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 5,619,213 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $143,967,000 after buying an additional 5,153,257 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.36% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on PFE. Redburn Atlantic lowered their target price on shares of Pfizer from $29.00 to $27.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Leerink Partners decreased their price target on shares of Pfizer from $28.00 to $26.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Pfizer from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Pfizer from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Pfizer from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $28.55.

Pfizer Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of Pfizer stock opened at $24.59 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.96. Pfizer Inc. has a 1 year low of $20.92 and a 1 year high of $31.54. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $23.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $24.77. The stock has a market cap of $139.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.82, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 0.58.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.25. Pfizer had a net margin of 12.62% and a return on equity of 20.33%. The company had revenue of $13.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.43 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.82 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pfizer Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 25th will be issued a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.00%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 25th. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio is currently 124.64%.

Pfizer Company 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.