Pfizer Inc. (PFE) shares leapt higher Tuesday after the drugmaker posted stronger-than-expected second quarter earnings, while boosting its vaccine sales forecast, amid the ongoing demand for its Covid vaccine and antiviral treatment.
Pfizer said adjusted earnings for the three months ending in September were pegged at $1.78 per share, a 40.2% increase from the same period last year and well ahead of the Street consensus forecast of $1.39 per share. Group revenues, Pfizer said, fell 6% to $22.64 billion, a figure that also beat analysts' estimates of an $21.04 billion tally, amid a pullback in sales of its Paxlovid antivrial treatment.
Looking into the final months of the 2022 financial year, Pfizer lifted the lower end of its adjusted earnings guidance by 5 cents per share, and now forecasts a range of between $6.40 to $6.50 per share, up 10 cents from the lower end of its prior estimate, with full-year revenues seen between $99.5 billion and $102 billion.
Pfizer's Covid vaccine, known as Comirnaty, saw sales rise to $4.4 billion over the forth quarter, helping drive a boost in full-year revenue guidance by another $2 billion, to $34 billion. The forecast for Paxlovid sales was held at $22 billion.
“I continue to be proud of our colleagues’ excellence, ingenuity and unwavering commitment to bringing breakthroughs to patients. Over the next 18 months, we expect to have up to 19 new products or indications in the market – including the five for which we have already begun co-promotion or commercialization earlier this year," said CEO Albert Bourla.
"Many of these 19 programs are already largely de-risked from a clinical perspective, the majority were discovered in-house, and nearly all would be for indications outside of COVID-19," he added. "This quarter, we set the stage for these potential launches by reorganizing our commercial operations to better capitalize on these opportunities."
Pfizer shares were marked 3.6% higher in early Tuesday trading following the earnings release to change hands at $48.08 each.
