Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Sells 629,032 Shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lowered its holdings in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 7.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,955,636 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 629,032 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned about 0.14% of Pfizer worth $222,599,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Olistico Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Pfizer in the second quarter valued at about $25,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Pfizer in the second quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Creekmur Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Pfizer during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC increased its position in shares of Pfizer by 100.0% during the 1st quarter. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC now owns 1,200 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Financial Connections Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Pfizer during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $34,000. 68.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on PFE shares. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Pfizer from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $28.00 to $34.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Pfizer from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Pfizer from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $45.00 price target on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Monday. Finally, StockNews.com raised Pfizer from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $34.54.

Pfizer Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE PFE opened at $29.67 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.60. The firm has a market cap of $168.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -494.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.68. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $29.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.20. Pfizer Inc. has a one year low of $25.20 and a one year high of $34.11.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.14. Pfizer had a negative net margin of 4.66% and a positive return on equity of 8.42%. The business had revenue of $13.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.96 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.67 earnings per share. Pfizer’s revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.66 EPS for the current year.

Pfizer Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 26th were given a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 26th. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.66%. Pfizer’s payout ratio is -2,799.53%.

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.