Are Pfizer’s Acquisitions Holding Back Its Bottom Line?

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 12, 3:20PM EST · Published Jan 31, 8:55AM EST

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Are Pfizer’s Acquisitions Holding Back Its Bottom Line? — © Wikimedia Commons

[cnxvideo id=”625478″ placement=”ros”]Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) reported its fourth-quarter financial results before the markets opened on Tuesday. The company posted $0.47 in earnings per share (EPS) and $13.63 billion in revenue. Thomson Reuters had consensus estimates of $0.50 in EPS and revenue of $13.63 billion. In the same period of last year, the pharma giant posted EPS of $0.53 and $14.05 billion in revenue.

Acquisitions by Pfizer over the past year had a sizable impact on this report. Notable acquisitions that played into the top and bottom lines were Hospira (September 2015), Anacor Pharma (June 2016) and Medivation (September 2016).

CFO Frank D’Amelio, Executive Vice President, Business Operations, commented:

Pfizer-standalone revenues in 2016 grew 5% operationally, excluding the impact of foreign exchange as well as legacy Hospira and legacy Medivation operations, reflecting solid underlying growth despite significant headwinds from product losses of exclusivity and the decline in revenues for Prevnar 13 Adult in the U.S. During 2016, we completed the acquisitions of Anacor and Medivation which added important revenue growth drivers to our Innovative Health business while we continued to integrate legacy Hospira operations into our Essential Health business. Finally, during 2016 we returned $12.3 billion directly to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.

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The company reported its business segments for this quarter as follows:

Innovative Health reported $7.73 billion in revenue, operational revenue growth of 2%. This was driven by continued growth from key brands including Ibrance, primarily in the U.S., Eliquis globally, the addition of Xtandi revenues in the U.S. resulting from the acquisition of Medivation in September 2016, as well as Xeljanz and Lyrica, both primarily in the U.S.

Essential Health had $5.90 billion in revenue, with operational growth decreasing 6%. This was the result of an operational decline of 20% from Peri-LOE Products and a 3% operational decline from Legacy Established Products (LEP) partially offset by 3% operational growth from the Sterile Injectable Pharmaceuticals (SIP)(8) portfolio and 48% operational growth from Biosimilars.

In terms of guidance for the 2017 full year, the company expects to see EPS in the range of $2.50 to $2.60 and revenues between $52.0 billion and $54.0 billion, compared with the consensus estimates of $2.57 in EPS and $54.03 billion in revenue for the coming year.

Shares of Pfizer closed Monday at $31.31, with a consensus analyst price target of $37.52 and a 52-week trading range of $28.25 to $37.39. Following the release of the earnings report, the stock was initially down about 1% at $31.00 in early trading indications Tuesday.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.