Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Acquires 77,780 Shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI boosted its holdings in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 63.5% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 200,310 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after purchasing an additional 77,780 shares during the quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $5,605,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Olistico Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Pfizer in the second quarter valued at about $25,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Pfizer in the 2nd quarter worth about $29,000. Creekmur Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Pfizer in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Pfizer by 100.0% during the 1st quarter. Trivant Custom Portfolio Group LLC now owns 1,200 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Connections Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Pfizer in the second quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.36% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PFE has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their price target on Pfizer from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Pfizer from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” 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 report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Pfizer from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of Pfizer from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $28.00 to $34.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Pfizer has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $34.54.

Pfizer Trading Up 2.7 %

NYSE:PFE opened at $30.07 on Tuesday. Pfizer Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.20 and a 1 year high of $34.12. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $29.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.60. The company has a market cap of $170.40 billion, a P/E ratio of -501.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.68.

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

Pfizer Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 26th were paid a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.59%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 26th. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio is presently -2,799.53%.

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.