Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. Reduces Position in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. decreased its holdings in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 1.4% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 58,558 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 804 shares during the period. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $1,695,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Addison Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 394.2% in the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 52,238 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,512,000 after purchasing an additional 41,668 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in shares of Pfizer by 26.0% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,105,433 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $89,872,000 after buying an additional 639,985 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 4.3% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 13,118,764 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $379,657,000 after acquiring an additional 544,418 shares during the period. LGT Group Foundation increased its position in Pfizer by 2.5% during the second quarter. LGT Group Foundation now owns 742,875 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $20,786,000 after acquiring an additional 18,274 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Radnor Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Pfizer in the third quarter valued at about $2,972,000. Institutional investors own 68.36% of the company’s stock.

Pfizer Trading Down 2.6 %

PFE stock opened at $26.02 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $147.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.16, a PEG ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.73. Pfizer Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.20 and a 1-year high of $31.54. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $28.76 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.67.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.42. Pfizer had a net margin of 7.07% and a return on equity of 16.28%. The company had revenue of $17.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.17) EPS. Pfizer’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pfizer Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.42 per share. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th. Pfizer’s payout ratio is presently 227.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pfizer

In other Pfizer news, Director Scott Gottlieb bought 1,000 shares of Pfizer stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $28.24 per share, for a total transaction of $28,240.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $282,400. This represents a 11.11 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on PFE shares. StockNews.com upgraded Pfizer from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Pfizer from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Daiwa America upgraded shares of Pfizer from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Evercore ISI upgraded Pfizer to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on Pfizer in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $32.00 target price on the stock. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $33.58.

About Pfizer

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.