Pfizer Inc. (PFE, Financial) announced through the Business Wire on Jan. 5 that the results from a phase 3 study assessing the efficiency of PF-06410293, a biosimilar of AbbVie’s (ABBV, Financial) Humira, in treating patients affected by rheumatoid arthritis met its primary endpoint.
The company said “the primary endpoint is an equivalent ACR20 response (greater than or equal to 20% improvement by American College of Rheumatology criteria) at week 12 of study treatment.”
The ACR criteria is used to assess and establish improvements in tender or swollen joints and improvements in at least three of the following parameters:
- acute phase reactant (such as sedimentation rate)
- patient assessment
- physician assessment
- pain scale
- disability/functional questionnaireÂ
After the announcement Thursday, Pfizer stock rose 1.02% or 34 cents per share and closed the trading day at $33.61 with 20,003,366 shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
Year to date, the stock has gained 1%. It closed at $33.47 per share on Monday, down one cent or 0.03% from the previous trading day, with 20,455,312 shares traded.
The company has a market capitalization of $203.11 billion and is less volatile than the market with a beta of 0.99.
The 52-week range is between $28.25 per share and $37.39 per share. The trailing 12-month price-earnings ratio is 33.60 and the EPS is $1.
Revenue increased 7.9%, from $12.09 billion in third-quarter 2015 to $13.04 billion in third-quarter 2016. Earnings attributable to the company decreased 38%, from $2.13 million in third-quarter 2015 to $1.32 billion in third-quarter 2016.
In the third quarter, Pfizer generated an adjusted diluted EPS of 61 cents, a 2% increase on a year over year basis. This generated a negative surprise of 1.6% among analysts since they estimated an EPS of 62 cents.
For the current year, analysts estimate an EPS of $2.42, representing a 10% increase from 2015. For 2017, analysts estimate a 8.7% growth from 2016.
The analysts’ average target price is $37.65. The price ranges between a low of $30 per share and a high of $53 per share. The current average target price represents a 12.5% upside from the current price and the recommendation rating is 2.5.
Pfizer is trading at 3.21 times its book value and 11.65 times its Ebitda. The company had approximately $14.42 billion in cash on hand and $ 44.07 billion in total debt as of the most recent quarter.
Over the 12 trailing months period, the company generated approximately $14.65 billion from operations. The company distributes a total dividend of $1.28 per share through quarterly payments of 32 cents. The dividend yield is 3.82%.
Pfizer has 6.07 billion shares outstanding. Of those, 0.03% are held by insiders and 72% are held by institutions.
The Vanguard Group Inc. and State Street Corp. are the top institutional holders of Pfizer. Vanguard holds 393,298,745 shares valued at $13.3 billion. State Street holds 239,425,467 shares valued at $8.1 billion.
Disclosure: I have no position in Pfizer Inc.
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