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Pfizer (PFE) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Pfizer (PFE - Free Report) closed at $35.23 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.06% move from the prior day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.34%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 2.13%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.94%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the drugmaker had gained 5.55% over the past month. This has outpaced the Medical sector's gain of 2.85% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.92% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from PFE as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be July 28, 2020. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.64, down 20% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $11.94 billion, down 10.01% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $2.88 per share and revenue of $48.85 billion, which would represent changes of -2.37% and -5.61%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for PFE. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.82% higher within the past month. PFE is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Looking at its valuation, PFE is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 12.23. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 15.31, which means PFE is trading at a discount to the group.

Also, we should mention that PFE has a PEG ratio of 2.75. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.13 at yesterday's closing price.

The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 26, putting it in the top 11% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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