Ariston Services Group Purchases New Shares in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Ariston Services Group acquired a new stake in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 10,155 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $269,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Swedbank AB raised its position in Pfizer by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 5,745,831 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $166,284,000 after purchasing an additional 37,636 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Pfizer by 11.4% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 61,105 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,768,000 after buying an additional 6,262 shares during the last quarter. Optas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 5.8% in the third quarter. Optas LLC now owns 9,824 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $284,000 after buying an additional 539 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Pfizer by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 111,694 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $3,232,000 after acquiring an additional 535 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 120.7% during the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 4,498,313 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $130,181,000 after acquiring an additional 2,459,666 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.36% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Pfizer

In other Pfizer news, Director Ronald E. Blaylock bought 19,457 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $25.65 per share, for a total transaction of $499,072.05. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 27,707 shares in the company, valued at $710,684.55. This represents a 235.84 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on PFE. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $33.00 target price on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Pfizer in a report on Friday, November 15th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $25.00 price objective for the company. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Pfizer from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Pfizer from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Pfizer from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $31.92.

Pfizer Trading Down 0.8 %

PFE opened at $26.21 on Tuesday. 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 firm has a market cap of $148.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.59, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.64. Pfizer Inc. has a 12 month low of $24.48 and a 12 month high of $31.54. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $26.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $27.30.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.15. Pfizer had a net margin of 12.62% and a return on equity of 19.47%. The business had revenue of $17.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.10 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pfizer Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 24th will be issued a $0.43 dividend. This is a positive change from Pfizer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.56%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 24th. Pfizer’s payout ratio is currently 121.99%.

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.