Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. Acquires 7,544 Shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. raised its stake in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 584,963 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 7,544 shares during the quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc.’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $15,519,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of PFE. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS grew its position in Pfizer by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 1,210,009 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $32,102,000 after buying an additional 41,694 shares in the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Pfizer by 23.1% in the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,181 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $164,000 after purchasing an additional 1,159 shares in the last quarter. Citizens & Northern Corp grew its stake in Pfizer by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Citizens & Northern Corp now owns 36,646 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $972,000 after buying an additional 2,545 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,068,039 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $28,335,000 after buying an additional 2,701 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pittenger & Anderson Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Pfizer by 9,571.7% during the 4th quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. now owns 102,520 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,720,000 after acquiring an additional 101,460 shares during the last quarter. 68.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PFE has been the topic of a number of research reports. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $33.00 price target on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Monday, February 10th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Pfizer from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Bank of America reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $29.00 price target on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Pfizer from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Pfizer from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $31.92.

Pfizer Stock Performance

Shares of PFE stock opened at $25.50 on Tuesday. Pfizer Inc. has a 12 month low of $24.48 and a 12 month high of $31.54. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $26.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $27.54. The stock has a market cap of $144.48 billion, a PE ratio of 18.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $17.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.10 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pfizer Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 24th will be paid a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 24th. This is a boost from Pfizer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio is 121.99%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Pfizer news, Director Ronald E. Blaylock purchased 19,457 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $25.65 per share, for a total transaction of $499,072.05. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 27,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $710,684.55. The trade was a 235.84 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.