Pfizer Stock Surges On Trifecta Of Good News As Earnings Beat, Guidance Boosted

Pfizer stock hit a trifecta Tuesday after the company followed a beat-and-raise earnings report with promising results for a respiratory vaccine in unborn children.

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The vaccine is administered to pregnant women and aims to prevent newborns from contracting serious cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. RSV cases are surging right now. In the final-phase study, the vaccine was 81.8% protective against severe RSV through the first 90 days of infants’ lives and 69.4% effective through the first six months of life.

If approved, this would be the first maternal vaccine for RSV, meant to protect babies, Pfizer (PFE) said in a news release.

On today’s stock market, Pfizer stock jumped 3.1% to 48.01. Shares are now well above their 50-day moving average and are making inroads to their 200-day line, according to MarketSmith.com.

Pfizer Stock: Earnings Soar As Sales Dive

During the third quarter, adjusted Pfizer earnings soared 40% to $1.78 per share, and sales fell 6% to $22.64 billion. Both measures easily surpassed projections from FactSet for adjusted earnings of $1.39 a share on $21.07 billion in sales.

Sales included $4.4 billion from Comirnaty, Pfizer’s BioNTech (BNTX)-partnered Covid shot. As expected, sales of the Covid vaccine crumbled as demand dwindles. Revenue from the vaccine tumbled 66%. Meanwhile, Covid treatment Paxlovid generated $7.51 billion in sales.

Beyond those Covid products, sales of Pfizer’s second biggest products grew. Blood thinner Eliquis generated $1.46 billion in sales, hiking 9% higher. Sales of Prevnar, a pneumonia vaccine, rose 11% to $1.61 billion.

But cancer drug Ibrance brought in just $1.28 billion, falling 7%.

Pfizer raised its guidance for 2022 and now projects adjusted profit of $6.40 to $6.50 a share and $99.5 billion to $102 billion in sales. The revenue figure includes expectations for $34 billion from Comirnaty and $22 billion from Paxlovid.

Pfizer stock analysts polled by FactSet expected adjusted profit of $6.40 per share and $99.66 billion in sales.

Follow Allison Gatlin on Twitter at @IBD_AGatlin.

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