Pfizer's Earnings Are Tuesday. Here's What to Expect. - Barron's

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Pfizer's success with its Covid-19 vaccine hasn't given the stock a big boost.

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Pfizer shares have kept pace with the market so far this year, rising 7.5% while the S&P 500 is up 11.7% and the S&P 500 Health Care Sector Index has gained 7.7%. The next indications about whether that can continue will come on Tuesday.

Pfizer is due to disclose its latest financial results before the start of trading. A conference call with analysts and investors is scheduled for 10 a.m. Eastern time.

Amid the pandemic, Pfizer has completed a years-long transformation, shedding dozens of ancillary businesses to focus entirely on developing and acquiring new drugs. The company says the success of its widely used Covid-19 vaccine has proven the viability of that new model.

Yet Pfizer shares are lagging behind the S&P 500 over the longer term. Pfizer is up 6% since the start of 2020, while the S&P 500 is up 30.2%. The two biotechs with Covid-19 vaccines, BioNTech (BNTX) and Moderna (MRNA), meanwhile, are up 495% and 854%, respectively, over the same period.

Unlike Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and AstraZeneca (AZN), the other big pharma firms with marketed Covid-19 vaccines, Pfizer says that it is selling its vaccine for a profit. But investors have shown little appreciation for those vaccine sales, which the company has said will account for $15 billion in revenue this year.

Pfizer shares trade at 12.4 times the earnings expected over the next 12 months, just below the 5-year average of 12.6 times, according to FactSet.

Here’s a snapshot of investors’ expectations and recent history.

— Analysts expect Pfizer to report earnings of $0.78 per share, and sales of $13.7 billion, according to the FactSet consensus estimate.

— Pfizer reported earnings of $0.42 per share for the fourth quarter of 2020 in February, falling short of the FactSet consensus estimates of $0.50 per share, and $11.7 billion in sales.

— The Pfizer earnings report comes after a difficult week for big biopharma earnings. Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), Merck (MRK), Amgen (AMGN), and Eli Lilly (LLY) all had disappointing results. AbbVie (ABBV) turned in a rare positive surprise among the large-cap biopharma firms.

— More than 130 million doses of Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more than 162 million doses have been delivered to local authorities.

— On Friday, Pfizer and BioNTech said that they had asked regulators in the European Union to expand their conditional authorization of their Covid-19 vaccine to allow its use in adolescents aged 12 to 15. They had made the same request of the U.S. Food and Drug administration on April 9.

— Also on Friday, Reuters reported that Pfizer was beginning to export doses of its Covid-19 vaccine manufactured in the U.S.

Corrections & Amplifications: The S&P 500 and the S&P 500 Healthcare Sector Index are up 11.7% and 7.7% so far this year, respectively. An earlier version of this article misstated their performances.

Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis at josh.nathan-kazis@barrons.com

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