Due to lower research expenses and higher demand for COVID-19 products than Pfizer had anticipated, the company unexpectedly posted a quarterly profit on Tuesday.
Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) beat the analyst estimate of $-0.18 by $0.28 to report fourth-quarter EPS of $0.10. Contrary to the consensus estimate of $14.22 billion, revenue for the quarter came in at $14.25 billion.
At $27.48, Pfizer’s stock price closed. It has decreased by -37.77% over the past 12 months and by -9.90% over the past three.
On an adjusted basis, the American pharmaceutical company made 10 cents per share in the fourth quarter. LSEG data shows that analysts had anticipated a loss of 22 cents per share on average.
The COVID vaccine and treatment sales that had been worth billions of dollars vanished last year, and investors started to abandon Pfizer (NYSE:PFE).
A setback with its experimental obesity drug compounded the exodus, sending shares plunging to levels last seen during the 2020 pandemic sell-off and wiping out $100 billion in market capitalization by 2023.
Its COVID products, the COVID vaccine Comirnaty and the antiviral medication Paxlovid, generated $12.5 billion in revenue in 2023, a 78% decrease from their peak of $57 billion in 2022.
Together with its German partner BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX), Pfizer produces the Comirnaty vaccine.
Through internal restructuring and a $4 billion cost-cutting program, the American drugmaker is aiming for a return to profitability.
It anticipates increasing revenue from cancer treatments, including from its $43 billion acquisition of cancer drugmaker Seagen, and its new RSV vaccine, after the cuts are implemented.
Pfizer had stated in October that it anticipated 2023 sales of $11.5 billion for Comirnaty and $1 billion for Paxlovid.
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Pfizer Starts Big Pharma Earnings | Stock Rises
In premarket trading, the American drugmaker’s shares increased 1.9%.
Tuesday saw a rise in shares as the pharmaceutical company exceeded analysts’ earnings projections and reiterated its full-year guidance.
For the fourth quarter of 2023, Pfizer recorded revenue of $14.2 billion and adjusted earnings per share of 10 cents.
According to FactSet, analysts had projected $14.4 billion in revenue and a loss of 18 cents per share for the quarter.
Pfizer reiterated that it expects revenue of between $58.5 billion and $61.5 billion this year, with adjusted earnings expected to be between $2.05 and $2.25.
Premarket trading on Tuesday saw a 1.5% increase in Pfizer shares.
After a year of significant deals and underwhelming stock performance, Pfizer is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter earnings on Tuesday morning.
Analysts predict that for the quarter, the company will report revenue of $14.4 billion and a loss per share of $0.18.
In December, Pfizer released a reset that included a $4 billion cost-savings program and guidance for 2024 that was significantly lower than what analysts had anticipated.
It stated that it anticipates revenue of between $58.5 billion and $61.5 billion this year, along with adjusted diluted earnings of between $2.05 and $2.25. A $2.27 per share estimate is the general consensus.
Pfizer’s stock has decreased by 4.9% this year and 37.1% in the previous twelve months. The business has recently completed a number of significant transactions, most notably the $43 billion purchase of the biotech company Seagen, which focuses on cancer, and the $11 billion purchase of Biohaven Pharmaceuticals in 2022.
Investors remain uninspired by those deals. By the end of this decade, the company will likely face a significant patent cliff and lose $17 billion in revenue annually. The patents are scheduled to expire the following year. The company’s obesity pill, which is still undergoing clinical trials, has repeatedly fallen short of expectations, and it is no longer apparent how it will gain regulatory approval and take a sizable chunk of the market.
On Tuesday, investors will be watching for updates on the company’s cost-cutting initiative.
The effectiveness of the respiratory syncytial virus vaccine, which received a new approval last year, is also noteworthy. During an investor conference in January, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla chastised his own company for only capturing 35% of the market despite higher-than-expected sales of the RSV vaccine.