Cerity Partners LLC Purchases 412,364 Shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 26.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,984,016 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 412,364 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $57,417,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in PFE. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Pfizer in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $315,000. Bellevue Group AG increased its position in Pfizer by 48.0% in the 1st quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 33,834 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $939,000 after acquiring an additional 10,966 shares during the period. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Pfizer by 25.7% in the 1st quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC now owns 22,128 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $614,000 after acquiring an additional 4,525 shares during the period. Lavaca Capital LLC increased its position in Pfizer by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. Lavaca Capital LLC now owns 11,248 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $312,000 after acquiring an additional 601 shares during the period. Finally, Waverly Advisors LLC increased its position in Pfizer by 36.3% in the 1st quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 165,821 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $4,602,000 after acquiring an additional 44,118 shares during the period. 68.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pfizer

In other Pfizer news, Director Scott Gottlieb acquired 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $28.24 per share, with a total value of $28,240.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $282,400. This represents a 11.11 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PFE has been the subject of several recent research reports. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Pfizer from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Pfizer from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Pfizer from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of Pfizer in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Pfizer from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $28.00 to $34.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. 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 issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Pfizer currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $32.92.

Pfizer Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE PFE opened at $25.65 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $145.36 billion, a PE ratio of 34.66, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.67. Pfizer Inc. has a 12-month low of $24.48 and a 12-month high of $31.54. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $28.21 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.57. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.06 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $17.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.92 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.17) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 31.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pfizer Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be paid a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.55%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 227.03%.

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.