First Wilshire Securities Management Inc. Buys New Shares in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

First Wilshire Securities Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 9,184 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $244,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Pfizer by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 518,535,151 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $13,756,738,000 after acquiring an additional 2,285,276 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Pfizer by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 290,460,600 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $8,405,930,000 after acquiring an additional 3,405,539 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 19.5% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 155,459,101 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $4,124,330,000 after purchasing an additional 25,315,159 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Pfizer by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 120,589,782 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $3,190,131,000 after purchasing an additional 2,923,537 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Pfizer in the fourth quarter valued at $2,328,986,000. 68.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Ronald E. Blaylock purchased 19,457 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $25.65 per share, with a total value of $499,072.05. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 27,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $710,684.55. This trade represents a 235.84 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Pfizer Trading Down 3.2 %

PFE stock opened at $24.53 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $26.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.73. 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 capitalization of $139.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.39, a P/E/G ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.61.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on PFE shares. Truist Financial decreased their price target 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. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Pfizer to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Pfizer from $30.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Bank of America reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $29.00 price objective on shares of Pfizer in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.92.

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.