Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.43

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 12th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 24th will be paid a dividend of 0.43 per share by the biopharmaceutical company on Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.46%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 24th. This is a positive change from Pfizer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42.

Pfizer has raised its dividend by an average of 2.5% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 16 years. Pfizer has a payout ratio of 57.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Pfizer to earn $2.93 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 58.7%.

Pfizer Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE:PFE opened at $26.63 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $26.08 and a 200 day moving average of $27.98. The company has a market cap of $150.89 billion, a PE ratio of 35.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.64. Pfizer has a 12-month low of $24.48 and a 12-month high of $31.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by $0.42. The firm had revenue of $17.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.92 billion. Pfizer had a net margin of 7.07% and a return on equity of 16.28%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.17) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Pfizer will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on PFE. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Pfizer from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. StockNews.com cut Pfizer from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Pfizer to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Guggenheim reduced their price target on shares of Pfizer from $35.00 to $33.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Citigroup initiated coverage on Pfizer in a research report on Friday, October 25th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $30.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Scott Gottlieb bought 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $28.24 per share, for a total transaction of $28,240.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $282,400. The trade was a 11.11 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Pfizer Company 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.