Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. Has $1.82 Million Holdings in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. lessened its holdings in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 63,020 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 1,891 shares during the period. Meridian Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $1,824,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of PFE. Seelaus Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 61.6% during the 3rd quarter. Seelaus Asset Management LLC now owns 29,427 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $852,000 after acquiring an additional 11,215 shares during the last quarter. Northcape Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Pfizer by 1.8% during the third quarter. Northcape Wealth Management LLC now owns 23,774 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $688,000 after purchasing an additional 419 shares during the last quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc raised its position in shares of Pfizer by 2.9% in the third quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc now owns 152,584 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $4,416,000 after purchasing an additional 4,350 shares during the period. Bank of Marin boosted its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 17.4% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Marin now owns 8,430 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $244,000 after buying an additional 1,250 shares during the period. Finally, Valley Wealth Managers Inc. raised its holdings in Pfizer by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. now owns 678,742 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $19,643,000 after acquiring an additional 28,933 shares during the period. 68.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on PFE shares. Citigroup assumed coverage on Pfizer in a research note on Friday, October 25th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $30.00 target price for the company. Daiwa America raised shares of Pfizer from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Pfizer from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Evercore ISI raised shares of Pfizer to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on Pfizer in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $32.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Pfizer currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $32.92.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Scott Gottlieb purchased 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were acquired 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 directly owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $282,400. The trade was a 11.11 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Pfizer Stock Down 4.7 %

NYSE PFE opened at $24.80 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $28.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The firm has a market cap of $140.54 billion, a PE ratio of 33.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.67. Pfizer Inc. has a one year low of $24.48 and a one year high of $31.54.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.06 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analysts’ expectations of $14.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.17) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pfizer Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th will be issued a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio is currently 227.03%.

Pfizer 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.