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Pfizer’s 2021 Earnings to be $3-3.10 Per Share, Says CEO Bourla

Vivek M. Kumar
·3 min read

The world’s largest pharmaceutical company Pfizer is likely to post this year’s earnings in the range of $3 to $3.10 per share, according to chief executive officer Albert Bourla, speaking at a JP Morgan healthcare conference, Reuters reported.

That is also in line with the market expectations of $3.07 per share.

The company which ranked 64th on the 2020 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue, is expected to report its fourth-quarter earnings on February 2, 2021.

“We expect $39 billion in COVID-19 vaccine sales in 2021, and we see Pfizer/BioNTech dominating the vaccine market with nearly $14 billion in 2021 sales,” wrote Karen Andersen, sector strategist at Morningstar.

“Although we remain skeptical  of  AstraZeneca’s  ability  to  penetrate  the  U.S. market due to mixed phase 3 data so far, we assume the U.S. will see sufficient supply from Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Novavax (70% probability), and Johnson & Johnson (50% probability)  to  achieve  herd  immunity  by  mid-2021.”

At the time of writing, Pfizer shares traded about 2% lower at $37.05 on Tuesday; the stock fell about 1% in 2020.

Pfizer Stock Price Forecast

Eleven analysts who offered stock ratings for Pfizer in the last three months forecast the average price in 12 months at $42.09 with a high forecast of $53.00 and a low forecast of $36.00.

The average price target represents a 13.97% increase from the last price of $36.93. From those eleven analysts, three rated “Buy”, eight rated “Hold” and none rated “Sell”, according to Tipranks.

Morgan Stanley gave a base target price of $40 with a high of $48 under a bull scenario and $33 under the worst-case scenario. The firm currently has an “Equal-weight” rating on the pharmaceutical company’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Pfizer has been given a $40.00 target price by analysts at The Goldman Sachs. The firm currently has a “neutral” rating. Truist began coverage and issued a “buy” rating with $42.00 price target on the stock. Mizuho raised their price target to $44 from $43 and gave the company a “buy” rating.

In addition, BidaskClub cut shares of Pfizer to a “strong sell” rating from a “sell”. Barclays raised their price target to $37 from $35 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating. At last, Atlantic Securities cut shares to a “neutral” rating from an “overweight” rating and dropped their price target to $39 from $44.

Analyst Comments

“We project solid growth prospects, and the company’s COVID-19 vaccine offers significant accretion potential in 2021. But we expect COVID-19 vaccine sales and profits to decline significantly in 2022 and 2023,” noted David Risinger, equity analyst at Morgan Stanley.

“Pfizer’s dividend is set to adjust down in spring 2021 when Viatris begins paying a dividend. Pipeline execution will be key to investor perception, given late-decade patent expiration exposure.”

Upside and Downside Risks

Risks to Upside: Upside risks are COVID-19 vaccine sales above expectations, competitors’ vaccines less efficacious, core business financial upside, positive pipeline developments, and encouraging strategic action– highlighted by Morgan Stanley.

Risks to Downside: Downside risks are COVID-19 vaccine disappointments, core business shortfalls, pipeline disappointments, disappointing strategic action, and negative US drug pricing developments.

Check out FX Empire’s earnings calendar

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

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  • Option Trader Bets $2M On Advanced Micro Devices Following CES Presentation

    Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) shares dipped 1.95% on Tuesday, but at least one larger option trader is betting the stock is headed much higher in the long-term.The AMD Trade: On Tuesday morning, Benzinga Pro subscribers received dozens of AMD option alerts, but two trades stood out as particularly large and bullish: * At 11:59 a.m., a trader bought 245 AMD call options with a $95 strike price expiring in June 2022 near the ask price at $24.75. The trade represented a $606,375 bullish bet. * One second later, a trader bought 514 AMD call options with a $95 strike price expiring in June 2022 near the ask price at $24.749. The trade represented a more than $1.27-million bullish bet.Related Link: Option Trader Bets .1M On Plug Power Following South Korea DealWhy It's Important: Even traders who stick exclusively to stocks often monitor option market activity closely for unusually large trades. Given the relative complexity of the options market, large options traders are typically considered to be more sophisticated than the average stock trader.Many of these large options traders are wealthy individuals or institutions who may have unique information or theses related to the underlying stock.Unfortunately, stock traders often use the options market to hedge against their larger stock positions, and there's no surefire way to determine if an options trade is a standalone position or a hedge. In this case, given the relatively large size of Tuesday's largest AMD option trades, they could certainly be institutional hedging.AMD Fires Another Shot: The huge call option purchases come the same day AMD revealed its brand new Ryzen 5000 mobile processors at CES 2021. The new processors are based on the same Zen 3 architecture as the Ryzen 5000 CPUs for desktops that were a huge home run among critics and investors in late 2020.The new mobile processors are AMD's latest shot at stealing laptop market share from Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC).In early January, AMD surpassed Intel in desktop CPU market share for the first time in 15 years, according to PassMark Software's PerformanceTest. AMD has also been gaining market share from Intel in the massive server market as well.Benzinga's Take: The back-to-back call purchases almost certainly came from the same trader and represent a combined bullish bet of nearly $2 million. The market wasn't blown away by AMD's CES presentation on Tuesday given that the stock traded lower on the day, but the call buyer appears to be focusing on the long-term prospects for AMD.The calls have a break-even price of $119.75, suggesting at least 26% upside for AMD over roughly the next year-and-a-half.Photo courtesy of AMD. See more from Benzinga * Click here for options trades from Benzinga * 10 Best Performing S&P 500 Stocks Of 2020(C) 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.