Claret Asset Management Corp Sells 24,545 Shares of Pfizer Inc. $PFE

Claret Asset Management Corp reduced its stake in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 8.0% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 283,977 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 24,545 shares during the quarter. Claret Asset Management Corp’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $7,236,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Pfizer by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 533,363,457 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $12,928,730,000 after buying an additional 10,198,330 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Pfizer by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 127,471,481 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $3,080,552,000 after buying an additional 1,820,634 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Pfizer in the second quarter worth approximately $2,270,157,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 1.9% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 49,288,054 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,255,860,000 after acquiring an additional 897,786 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Pfizer by 2.4% in the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 49,165,032 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,191,760,000 after acquiring an additional 1,135,457 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on PFE shares. Bank of America lowered their target price on Pfizer from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $27.00 price target on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Pfizer from $32.00 to $28.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Daiwa Securities Group lowered shares of Pfizer from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $27.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Pfizer from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, March 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $28.05.

Pfizer Stock Down 0.9%

PFE stock opened at $26.81 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $152.42 billion, a PE ratio of 19.71 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. Pfizer Inc. has a twelve month low of $20.92 and a twelve month high of $27.94. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $26.34 and its 200-day moving average is $25.48.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $17.56 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.93 billion. Pfizer had a return on equity of 20.48% and a net margin of 12.42%.Pfizer’s revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.63 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pfizer Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 23rd were paid a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 23rd. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.4%. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio is presently 126.47%.

Pfizer Profile

Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) is a multinational biopharmaceutical company headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1849 by Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart, the company researches, develops, manufactures and commercializes a broad range of medicines and vaccines for human health. Its activities span discovery research, clinical development, regulatory affairs, manufacturing and global commercial distribution across multiple therapeutic areas.

Pfizer’s portfolio and pipeline cover oncology, immunology, cardiology, endocrinology, rare diseases, hospital acute care and anti-infectives, along with a substantial vaccine business.