Anchor Capital Advisors LLC Sells 1,780 Shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Anchor Capital Advisors LLC cut its stake in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 7.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 20,971 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 1,780 shares during the period. Anchor Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $604,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Pfizer by 10.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 95,772,746 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $3,161,261,000 after purchasing an additional 9,393,992 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 84,927,802 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,817,055,000 after acquiring an additional 348,628 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 60,207,521 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,997,083,000 after acquiring an additional 5,185,453 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Pfizer by 30.9% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 24,054,896 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $797,901,000 after acquiring an additional 5,678,004 shares during the period. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System raised its position in Pfizer by 0.6% in the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 18,380,833 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $609,692,000 after purchasing an additional 101,256 shares in the last quarter. 68.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on PFE. TD Cowen downgraded Pfizer from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $32.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Argus cut Pfizer from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Guggenheim assumed coverage on Pfizer in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $36.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $45.00 target price on shares of Pfizer in a report on Monday, April 15th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.33.

Pfizer Stock Performance

PFE stock opened at $25.61 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $26.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.26. Pfizer Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.20 and a fifty-two week high of $40.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $145.02 billion, a PE ratio of 71.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 0.61.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.19) by $0.29. Pfizer had a return on equity of 10.88% and a net margin of 3.62%. The company had revenue of $14.25 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.14 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 41.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.24 EPS for the current year.

Pfizer Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.42 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 9th. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.56%. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio is currently 466.67%.

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.