Pfizer Inc shares recovered much of their premarket trading losses, down about 40bps to $43.38 by early afternoon trading. The big story today, besides the drug company forecasting Covid product sales will slump this year, is the massive losses in market capitalization this month.
Year-to-date, Pfizer shares are down 15%, evaporating $43 billion in market cap — the worst monthly decline since 2009.
“There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.” Proverbs 14:12
Here’s what Wall Street analysts are saying about the weaker-than-estimated sales outlook for Pfizer’s Covid products (list courtesy of Bloomberg):
Wells Fargo (equal weight): Analyst Mohit Bansal expects the stock to be weak on the guidance miss “with focus on how 2023 can be a COVID trough year.”
- Says the outlook being below consensus was “not a huge surprise” as investors expected it
- “The guidance for the most part came in line with our expectations, but we suspect the stock could be weak as it missed sell side consensus by a good margin,” he writes
BMO Capital Markets (outperform): Analyst Evan David Seigerman says the 2023 revenue guidance was light due to lower Covid revenues and higher expenses
- “All in we think it’s better than it could have been, given the uncertainty around how the company would forecast Covid-19 revenues,” the analyst writes
Cantor Fitzgerald (overweight): Analyst Louise Chen says the guidance miss was “widely anticipated” and that was why the stock had been weak into the earnings report
- “We continue to believe that the sales potential of PFE’s products and pipeline remain underappreciated in 2025+,” Chen writes
Bloomberg Intelligence:
- “Pfizer’s potentially confusing 2023 forecast that’s about 20% below consensus adjusted EPS is largely attributable to about $2 billion of incremental SG&A and R&D expenses as the company launches 19 new drugs and indications in the next 18 months,” analyst John Murphy writes
