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Large pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced second-quarter financial results on Tuesday morning that exceeded Wall Street expectations, sending shares of around 3% in pre-trade.
The company reported earnings of $ 0.78 per share, beating the FactSet consensus at $ 0.10 and the S&P Capital IQ Consensus at $ 0.12.
Pfizer (ticker: PFE) reported sales of $ 11.8 billion in the quarter, a 9% operating decrease from the same quarter last year. But although sales of the company’s Upjohn division, which is taking place later this year, declined 31% operationally, the biopharmaceutical division, which will effectively be the company after the spin-off, increased 6%.
The company slightly increased its financial guidance for the full fiscal year 2020, saying it now expects revenue of between $ 48.6 billion and $ 50.6 billion, above the previous guidance of between $ 48.5 billion and $ 50.5 billion.
The update comes as Pfizer emerges as one of the leaders in the race to develop the first Covid-19 vaccine. On Monday night, the company announced that its program had reached a new milestone, saying it had begun a Phase 2/3 study of its experimental vaccine. The study began in the US and will include 30,000 participants worldwide. The vaccine will be administered in a two-dose regimen. The announcement came hours after Moderna (MRNA) announced that a phase 3 study of 30,000 participants of its own Covid-19 vaccine had begun.
Mizuho analyst Vamil Divan wrote Tuesday that he expected Pfizer shares to rise on the earnings news. “We expect Pfizer’s shares to continue their recent strength after 2Q 2020 results that exceeded expectations,” he said.
Pfizer shares fell 4.2% this year, though shares rose 16.3% in July amid excitement over the company’s vaccine program. The shares are trading at 14.4 times expected earnings in the next 12 months, just above their 5-year average of 13.4 times earnings. The S&P 500 is up 0.3% to date.
In a statement, the company’s CEO Dr. Albert Bourla said that Pfizer now plans to close the company’s transformative transaction in which Mylan (MYL) will merge with Pfizer Upjohn’s subsidiary in the fourth quarter of this year. .
“Biopharma’s business grew 9% operationally in the first six months of the year, driven by the strong performance of many key brands,” said Bourla. “Upjohn faced the expected headwind of generic competition for Lyrica in the United States, which was partially offset by strong performance in China in the second quarter of 2020.”
The company said revenue growth for its biopharmaceutical business was due in part to sales of vyndaqel and vyndamax, which treat transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy, launched last year, and to sales of eliquis, a blood thinner, which increased 19%. Sales of the anti-cancer drug ibrance increased 11% and sales of the previous vaccine 13 outside the US increased 18%.
An investor conference call is scheduled for 10 am
Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected]
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