Pfizer ups revenue expectations for the year with COVID vaccine rollout 

Pfizer is raising its revenue expectations for the year with a huge roll out of its COVID-19 vaccine as well as strong performances from other parts of its business. 

The company reported first-quarter earnings of $4.88 billion, or 86 cents per share. Per-share earnings were 93 cents if one-time costs or gains are removed. That far above the 79 cents Wall Street was looking for, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research.

Revenue was $14.58 billion, also easily exceeding forecasts of $13.49 billion from industry analysts. 

Pfizer expects full-year earnings in the range of $3.55 to $3.65 per share, with revenue in the range of $70.5 billion to $72.5 billion.

The New York company is manufacturing hundreds of millions of doses of the COVID-19 shot and pushing forward on research gauging its effectiveness in different patient groups, such as teens and people with compromised immune systems.

Pfizer has said that this year it can produce 2 billion doses of the vaccine, developed with its German partner BioNTech, including 200 million doses promised for the U.S. by the end of May.