Pfizer beats The Street in Q3, raises guidance

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) shares ticked up before hours on third-quarter results that topped the consensus forecast.

Shares of PFE ticked up 3.7% at $48.29 apiece before the market opened today.

The New York-based pharmaceutical giant posted profits of $8.6 billion. That amounts to $1.51 per share on sales of $22.6 billion for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2022.

Pfizer reported a 5.8% bottom-line gain despite a sales decline of 5.8%.

Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share came in at $1.78. That registers 39¢ ahead of Wall Street. Pfizer posted a sales beat, too, as analysts expected revenues of $21 billion.

“I continue to be proud of our colleagues’ excellence, ingenuity and unwavering commitment to bringing breakthroughs to patients,” said Pfizer Chair and CEO Albert Bourla. “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. 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.

“This quarter, we set the stage for these potential launches by reorganizing our commercial operations to better capitalize on these opportunities.”

Pfizer raised its 2022 financial guidance for both revenues and adjusted EPS. It now expects between $99.5 billion and $102 billion for the full year. Pfizer set the previous guidance between $98 billion and $102 billion.

The company now anticipates EPS to range between $6.40 and $6.50 for the year. That marks an increase on the previous projection for between $6.30 and $6.45.