The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Acquires 13,681 Shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE - Free Report) by 0.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,836,488 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after purchasing an additional 13,681 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned approximately 0.09% of Pfizer worth $128,312,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Passumpsic Savings Bank boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank now owns 25,680 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $743,000 after purchasing an additional 1,998 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in Pfizer during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,499,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Pfizer by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,008 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $404,000 after buying an additional 1,004 shares in the last quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 8,515 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $246,000 after buying an additional 660 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Pfizer during the 3rd quarter valued at $2,649,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.36% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Pfizer news, Director Ronald E. Blaylock acquired 19,457 shares of Pfizer stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $25.65 per share, for a total transaction of $499,072.05. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 27,707 shares of the company's stock, valued at $710,684.55. This represents a 235.84 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on PFE. Guggenheim reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Pfizer in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Pfizer from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Hsbc Global Res raised Pfizer to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Citigroup reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Pfizer in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $25.00 price objective (down previously from $32.00) on shares of Pfizer in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $29.17.

Pfizer Stock Up 1.1 %

Pfizer stock traded up $0.26 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $24.19. 41,672,273 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 40,568,489. Pfizer Inc. has a one year low of $20.92 and a one year high of $31.54. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $24.34 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $25.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The company has a market cap of $137.19 billion, a PE ratio of 17.16, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.67.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.25. Pfizer had a return on equity of 19.47% and a net margin of 12.62%. The company had revenue of $13.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $14.43 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.82 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 EPS for the current year.

Pfizer Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 9th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.11%. Pfizer's payout ratio is 124.64%.

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.