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

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Pfizer (PFE - Free Report) closed at $42.79 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.05% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.28%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.07%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.71%.

Heading into today, shares of the drugmaker had lost 1.9% over the past month, outpacing the Medical sector's loss of 3.3% and lagging the S&P 500's gain of 1.93% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from PFE as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be July 30, 2019. In that report, analysts expect PFE to post earnings of $0.77 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 4.94%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $13.42 billion, down 0.31% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $2.88 per share and revenue of $52.86 billion. These totals would mark changes of -4% and -1.46%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for PFE. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. PFE is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, PFE currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 14.84. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 14.53, so we one might conclude that PFE is trading at a premium comparatively.

It is also worth noting that PFE currently has a PEG ratio of 2.48. 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 2.09 at yesterday's closing price.

The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 37, which puts it in the top 15% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.

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


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