Assetmark Inc. Increases Holdings in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE - Free Report) by 2.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,699,263 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after purchasing an additional 103,548 shares during the quarter. Assetmark Inc. owned approximately 0.07% of Pfizer worth $107,057,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in Pfizer by 3.2% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 71,794,056 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $2,008,798,000 after buying an additional 2,241,609 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in Pfizer by 2.8% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 16,560,256 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $477,929,000 after buying an additional 456,168 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in Pfizer by 3.3% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 14,923,545 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $417,561,000 after buying an additional 470,003 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service raised its stake in Pfizer by 18.1% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 11,516,769 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $333,295,000 after buying an additional 1,762,520 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Pfizer by 2.4% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,260,067 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $287,077,000 after buying an additional 238,850 shares during the last quarter. 68.36% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on PFE. Evercore ISI upgraded Pfizer to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Daiwa America raised Pfizer from a "moderate buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com raised Pfizer from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Pfizer in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a "market perform" rating and a $32.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Pfizer from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pfizer has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $33.58.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Scott Gottlieb bought 1,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $28.24 per share, for a total transaction of $28,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at $282,400. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.06% of the company's stock.

Pfizer Stock Performance

Pfizer stock traded down $0.32 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $26.72. 55,951,315 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 37,583,031. The firm has a market capitalization of $151.42 billion, a PE ratio of 36.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 0.67. Pfizer Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.20 and a fifty-two week high of $31.54. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $28.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 1.00.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.06 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.92 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.17) earnings per share. Pfizer's quarterly revenue was up 31.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Pfizer Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be issued a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.29%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. Pfizer's payout ratio is currently 227.03%.

About Pfizer

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.