YHB Investment Advisors Inc. Reduces Position in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

YHB Investment Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 8.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 63,137 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 6,106 shares during the period. YHB Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $1,827,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of Pfizer by 3.2% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 71,794,056 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,008,798,000 after acquiring an additional 2,241,609 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 16,104,088 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $450,593,000 after buying an additional 290,760 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in Pfizer by 3.3% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 14,923,545 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $417,561,000 after purchasing an additional 470,003 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Pfizer by 2.4% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,260,067 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $287,077,000 after purchasing an additional 238,850 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thornburg Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 10.3% in the 2nd quarter. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,803,509 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $274,302,000 after purchasing an additional 912,156 shares in the last quarter. 68.36% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PFE has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded Pfizer from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $28.00 to $34.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of Pfizer from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on shares of Pfizer in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $32.00 price target for the company. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Pfizer in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Daiwa America upgraded Pfizer from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $33.91.

Pfizer Price Performance

PFE opened at $28.86 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $163.54 billion, a PE ratio of -481.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.67. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $29.07 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.48. Pfizer Inc. has a 52-week low of $25.20 and a 52-week high of $31.54.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $13.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.96 billion. Pfizer had a negative net margin of 4.66% and a positive return on equity of 8.42%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.67 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.66 EPS for the current year.

Pfizer Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be given a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio is currently -2,800.00%.

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.