Franklin Resources Inc. Increases Stake in Pfizer Inc. $PFE

Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 3.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,961,261 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after purchasing an additional 609,408 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. owned approximately 0.30% of Pfizer worth $411,141,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Westbourne Investments Inc. purchased a new position in Pfizer in the 1st quarter worth $2,411,000. Bourne Lent Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Pfizer by 90.8% in the second quarter. Bourne Lent Asset Management Inc. now owns 38,255 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $927,000 after purchasing an additional 18,200 shares during the last quarter. Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in Pfizer in the first quarter valued at approximately $49,968,000. IFM Investors Pty Ltd increased its holdings in Pfizer by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 1,127,143 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $27,322,000 after buying an additional 41,263 shares during the period. Finally, Intrua Financial LLC raised its position in Pfizer by 17.4% during the first quarter. Intrua Financial LLC now owns 78,392 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,986,000 after acquiring an additional 11,643 shares in the last quarter. 68.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Pfizer Price Performance

Pfizer stock opened at $25.02 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $24.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $24.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.16. Pfizer Inc. has a 1 year low of $20.92 and a 1 year high of $27.69. The company has a market capitalization of $142.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.54.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $16.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.94 billion. Pfizer had a net margin of 16.84% and a return on equity of 21.42%. Pfizer has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.000-3.150 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Pfizer Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 7th. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 100.00%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PFE. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Pfizer from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 28th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Pfizer in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Pfizer from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $26.00 price target on shares of Pfizer in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Pfizer from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $28.28.

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.