Legal & General Group Plc Purchases 3,296,415 Shares of Pfizer Inc. $PFE

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Pfizer by 8.6%, purchasing 3,296,415 shares to hold 41,741,186 shares (about 0.73% of the company) worth roughly $1.06 billion at quarter-end.
• Pfizer beat Q4 estimates with EPS of $0.66 (vs. $0.57 expected) and revenue of $17.56 billion, and pays a quarterly dividend of $0.43 (annualized $1.72) for a yield of 6.4%, though its payout ratio is elevated at 126.47%.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed: the consensus rating is Hold with an average target price of $28.05, reflecting a range of opinions from Strong Buy to Sell across firms.

Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE - Free Report) by 8.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 41,741,186 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after purchasing an additional 3,296,415 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.73% of Pfizer worth $1,063,565,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Grey Fox Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Pfizer in the 3rd quarter worth about $29,000. Howard Hughes Medical Institute bought a new stake in shares of Pfizer during the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Pfizer during the second quarter worth about $32,000. Evelyn Partners Asset Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Pfizer during the second quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC increased its position in shares of Pfizer by 302.5% in the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 1,296 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 974 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.36% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on PFE. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $25.00 target price for the company. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. They set a "neutral" rating and a $26.00 price objective on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $30.00 target price on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Monday. Guggenheim reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Pfizer in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Scotiabank began coverage on Pfizer in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. They set a "sector outperform" rating and a $30.00 price objective on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pfizer has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $28.05.

Pfizer Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of PFE stock opened at $26.81 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.16 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The business has a 50-day moving average of $26.34 and a 200 day moving average of $25.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $152.42 billion, a PE ratio of 19.71 and a beta of 0.47. Pfizer Inc. has a 1-year low of $20.92 and a 1-year high of $27.94.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 3rd. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.09. Pfizer had a return on equity of 20.48% and a net margin of 12.42%.The firm had revenue of $17.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.63 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Pfizer Dividend Announcement

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

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