Pfizer beats profit expectations but offers an upbeat outlook, as sales of COVID products plummet
Shares of Pfizer Inc.
PFE,
fell 2.2% to a three-and-a-half-month low in premarket trading on Tuesday, after the drugmaker reported fourth-quarter profit that beat expectations but missed revenue and full-year outlook. . Net income rose to $5.00 billion, or 87 cents a share, from $3.39 billion, or 59 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding occasional items, adjusted earnings per share were $1.14, well above FactSet consensus of $1.05 billion. Revenue rose 1.9% to $24.29 billion, but fell short of the FactSet consensus of $24.38 billion. For 2023, the company expects adjusted EPS from $3.25 to $3.45, well below FactSet consensus of $4.34. Revenue for the year is expected to fall from $67.0 billion to $71.0 billion, from $100.33 billion in 2022, as Comirnaty’s COVID vaccine revenue is expected is expected to drop 64%, and the company’s COVID-19 drug Paxlovid is expected to drop 58%. Excluding COVID products, revenue is expected to grow between 7% and 9%. Stocks have lost 6.4% in the three months to Monday, while the S&P 500
SPX,
rose 3.8%.
