First Financial Corp IN Sells 568 Shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

First Financial Corp IN lowered its stake in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 4.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 13,552 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 568 shares during the quarter. First Financial Corp IN’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $360,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Swiss National Bank grew its stake 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 worth $486,762,000 after acquiring an additional 100,900 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Pfizer by 11.0% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 130,143,942 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $3,766,366,000 after purchasing an additional 12,864,343 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in Pfizer by 80.9% in the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 508,256 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $14,709,000 after buying an additional 227,349 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC increased its stake in Pfizer by 394.2% in the 3rd quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 52,238 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,512,000 after buying an additional 41,668 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its stake in shares of Pfizer by 26.0% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,105,433 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $89,872,000 after buying an additional 639,985 shares during the last quarter. 68.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PFE has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup started coverage on Pfizer in a research report on Friday, October 25th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $30.00 price target for the company. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $29.00 target price on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Pfizer in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $32.00 price target on the stock. Guggenheim decreased their price objective on shares of Pfizer from $35.00 to $33.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Pfizer from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $32.00.

Pfizer Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PFE opened at $26.79 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.00. Pfizer Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $24.48 and a fifty-two week high of $31.54. The stock has a market cap of $151.82 billion, a PE ratio of 36.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.64. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $26.16 and a 200-day moving average of $28.04.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last posted its earnings results 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 return on equity of 16.28% and a net margin of 7.07%. The business had revenue of $17.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.17) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 31.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current 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 represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.42%. This is an increase from Pfizer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 24th. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 232.43%.

Insider Activity

In other Pfizer news, Director Scott Gottlieb acquired 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was bought at an average price 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

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.