Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC trimmed its position in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 33,510 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 2,408 shares during the quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $970,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of PFE. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of Pfizer by 3.2% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 71,794,056 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,008,798,000 after purchasing an additional 2,241,609 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank raised its position in shares of Pfizer by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 16,819,712 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $486,762,000 after purchasing an additional 100,900 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of Pfizer by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 16,560,256 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $477,929,000 after purchasing an additional 456,168 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Pfizer by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 16,553,997 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $479,073,000 after purchasing an additional 658,420 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in shares of Pfizer by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 14,923,545 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $417,561,000 after purchasing an additional 470,003 shares during the last quarter. 68.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on PFE. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $32.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Pfizer from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Pfizer from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Pfizer from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Pfizer to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.92.

Pfizer Price Performance

Pfizer stock opened at $24.80 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $28.64 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $140.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.51, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.67. Pfizer Inc. has a 1 year low of $24.48 and a 1 year high of $31.54.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last announced 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. The company had revenue of $17.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.92 billion. Pfizer had a return on equity of 16.28% and a net margin of 7.07%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.17) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pfizer Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.42 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.77%. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio is presently 227.03%.

Insider Transactions at Pfizer

In related news, Director Scott Gottlieb acquired 1,000 shares of Pfizer stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $282,400. This represents a 11.11 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.