BNP Paribas Has $5.57 Million Stock Holdings in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

BNP Paribas grew its stake in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 192,456 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 4,203 shares during the quarter. BNP Paribas’ holdings in Pfizer were worth $5,573,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Pfizer by 11.0% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 130,143,942 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $3,766,366,000 after purchasing an additional 12,864,343 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in shares of Pfizer by 279.3% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 5,378,173 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $150,481,000 after buying an additional 8,378,173 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Pfizer during the first quarter valued at about $172,902,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Pfizer in the 3rd quarter worth about $146,481,000. Finally, BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lifted its position in Pfizer by 164.2% in the 3rd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 7,316,405 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $211,737,000 after acquiring an additional 4,546,809 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.36% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Pfizer from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Pfizer from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded shares of Pfizer from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $28.00 to $34.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Daiwa America upgraded shares of Pfizer from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Pfizer to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.92.

Pfizer Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PFE opened at $25.76 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $28.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.54. Pfizer Inc. has a 1-year low of $24.48 and a 1-year high of $31.54. The firm has a market cap of $145.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 0.67.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.42. Pfizer had a return on equity of 16.28% and a net margin of 7.07%. The company had revenue of $17.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.92 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.17) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 31.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Pfizer Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th will be paid a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.52%. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio is 227.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Pfizer

In related news, Director Scott Gottlieb purchased 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $28.24 per share, with a total value of $28,240.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $282,400. This represents a 11.11 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock.

Pfizer Company 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.