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

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Pfizer (PFE - Free Report) closed at $36.39 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.94% move from the prior day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.61%. At the same time, the Dow added 1.51%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.87%.

Heading into today, shares of the drugmaker had lost 4.78% over the past month, lagging the Medical sector's loss of 2.02% and the S&P 500's loss of 4.08% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from PFE as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.72, down 4% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $12.27 billion, down 3.23% from the year-ago period.

PFE's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $2.87 per share and revenue of $49.19 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -2.71% and -4.95%, respectively.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for PFE. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.64% lower within the past month. PFE currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note PFE's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 12.54. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 14.57, so we one might conclude that PFE is trading at a discount comparatively.

We can also see that PFE currently has a PEG ratio of 2.92. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.02 at yesterday's closing price.

The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 171, putting it in the bottom 33% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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