When talking about the pharmaceutical industry, Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) is bound to come up, even more so with its second-quarter earnings just around the corner. This mega-pharma has been attacking M&A over the past year, winning some decisive battles and losing some as well, but ultimately ending up with a very strong pipeline regardless. This earnings report will showcase what Pfizer has to offer for the second half of 2016, and potentially give some insight into what companies it may be looking to pursue next.
The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters are $0.62 in earnings per share (EPS) on $13.01 billion in revenue. In the same period of last year, Pfizer reported EPS of $0.56 and $11.85 billion in revenue.
This top pharmaceutical company recently completed its acquisition of Anacor Pharmaceuticals. As mentioned, Pfizer has a very strong pipeline, and being the world’s largest drug manufacturer by sales value supports the Wall Street notion that the company can generate higher long-term revenues through the accelerated growth of its new drugs over the next five years.
When the Treasury Department announced new rules for corporate tax inversions, it effectively scuttled Pfizer’s deal with Allergan. With the deal over, not only are the risk arbitrage funds buying the stock back, but some felt there was as much as a $5 weight on the stock, but top analysts now feel that investors can once again focus on the sum-of-the-parts story, which they feel is compelling, in addition to making accretive purchases like Anacor.
Pfizer has announced that it is starting 20 clinical trials this year, and more soon after, on treatments to conquer cancer, as it also seeks to gain leadership in one of the hottest and most lucrative areas of medicine.
A few analysts weighed in on Pfizer ahead of its earnings report:
- Jefferies reiterated a Buy rating.
- Piper Jaffray has a Buy rating with a $54 price target.
- JPMorgan has a Buy rating with a $40 price target.
- BMO Capital Markets reiterated a Buy rating with a $40 price target.
- Deutsche Bank reiterated a Buy rating.
- Morgan Stanley reiterated a Hold rating with a $36 price target.
- Berenberg Bank initiated coverage with a Hold rating and a $38 price target.
- Merrill Lynch has a Buy rating.
So far in 2016, Pfizer has outperformed the broad markets, with the stock up about 17%. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock is up only about 7%.
Shares of Pfizer were trading up 1% at $37.25 on Monday, with a consensus analyst price target of $ and a 52-week trading range of $28.25 to $37.33.
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