Pfizer Inc.

PFIZER INC., $33.58, New York symbol PFE, is one of the world’s leading prescription-drug makers. Its top-selling brands include Lyrica (epilepsy), Celebrex (arthritis pain) and Enbrel (plaque psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis). The company also makes over-the-counter medications and supplements, including Advil (pain relief), Centrum (vitamins) and Robitussin (cough syrup). In the three months ended March 31, 2016, earnings jumped 30.0%, to $4.2 billion from $3.2 billion a year earlier. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share gained 31.4%, to $0.67 from $0.51. That beat the consensus estimate of $0.55....

PFIZER INC., $32.50, New York symbol PFE, is the world’s largest pharmaceutical company. It has cancelled its merger with Irish drugmaker Allergan plc (New York symbol AGN), which is best known for the anti-wrinkle drug Botox. The deal was meant to cut the combined firm’s corporate tax rate to 18% from 25%. New U.S. tax rules now prevent that savings. Under the terms of the agreement, Pfizer must pay Allergan a $150-million break-up fee. To put that in context, Pfizer earned $3.3 billion, or $0.53 a share, in the three months ended December 31, 2015. The company will now speed up plans to divide its operations into two separate companies: one would focus on patent-protected drugs. The other would own established products without patent protection. Pfizer will make a final decision by the end of 2016....

PFIZER INC. $30(New York symbol PFE; Income Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 6.2 billion; Market cap: $186.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.8; Dividend yield: 4.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pfizer.com) acquired rival drug maker Wyeth in October 2009. Wyeth has now agreed to pay the U.S. Medicaid system $784.6 million to settle a dispute over how it calculated rebates for its Protonix acid reflux drug between 2001 and 2006. Pfizer will have to restate its earnings for 2015 to reflect this charge. However, its earnings before unusual items of $2.20 a share remains unchanged....

FAIR ISAAC CORP. $96 (New York symbol FICO; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 31.4 million; Market cap: $3.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.5; Dividend yield: 0.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.fico.com) is best known for its FICO Scores computer program, which helps lenders make better decisions about customer creditworthiness. It also makes software that helps credit card issuers control fraud and analyze cardholders’spending patterns. The company is now applying its banking expertise to other areas of cybersecurity. It recently won a patent for a system that monitors corporate networks for suspicious activity or online attacks. It received another patent for a similar program that helps power, gas and water utilities detect unusual consumption patterns. However, the stock trades at a high 29.4 times the $3.26 a share that Fair Isaac will probably earn in its 2016 fiscal year, which ends September 30, 2016....

PFIZER INC. $32 (New York symbol PFE; Income Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 6.5 billion; Market cap: $208.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.0; Dividend yield: 3.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pfizer.com) is the world’s largest pharmaceutical company.

Pfizer gets about 45% of its revenue from 10 drugs, each of which generates over $1 billion in annual sales. They include Lipitor (for high cholesterol), Enbrel (rheumatoid arthritis), Lyrica (epilepsy), Celebrex (arthritis), Viagra (erectile dysfunction), Norvasc (hypertension), Prevnar (a pneumonia vaccine), Sutent (stomach cancer), Premarin (hormone replacement) and Zyvox (bacterial infections).

The company is also the world’s fifth-largest maker of overthe- counter drugs. Brands include Advil (pain relief), Centrum (vitamins) and Robitussin (cough syrup).
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ALPHABET INC., Nasdaq symbols GOOG (class C non-voting), $683.57, and GOOGL (class A voting), $703.76, is the new holding company for Google’s Internet search business and its smaller, riskier operations. These smaller businesses, which the company calls “Other Bets,” sell home thermostats and high-speed Internet and digital TV services. In the three months ended December 31, 2015, Alphabet’s revenue rose 17.8%, to $21.3 billion from $18.1 billion a year earlier, beating the consensus forecast of $20.8 billion. The main search engine business accounted for 99% of the total. That division’s revenue gained 17.7%. The number of paid clicks on advertisers’ ads jumped 31%, helping offset a 13% drop in the average amount advertisers paid per click. More people are using mobile devices to access the Internet, but advertisers pay lower rates for mobile ads because they’re harder to see on smaller screens. Revenue from Other Bets (1% of revenue) jumped 42.5%....

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PFIZER INC. $31 (New York symbol PFE; Income Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 6.2 billion; Market cap: $192.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.0; Dividend yield: 3.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pfizer.com) is one of the world’s leading prescription drug makers. Top-selling brands include Lyrica (epilepsy), Celebrex (arthritis pain), Prevnar (pneumonia) and Enbrel (rheumatoid arthritis). Many of Pfizer’s drugs will lose their patent protection in the next few years. To fuel its future growth, the company paid $17 billion for Hospira in 2015. Hospira makes biosimilars, which are close copies of biologic drugs (or those made from living organisms, like bacteria and yeast). Biologics differ from regular drugs, which are typically made from chemical compounds....

The lower Canadian dollar has made it more expensive to buy U.S. stocks. However, the American market gives you access to the world’s leading companies. What’s more, U.S. dollar investments give you foreign currency diversification.

We feel it’s more important than ever to build a varied portfolio of high-quality stocks....

iShares Core S&P 500 Hedged ETF aims to cut currency risk by hedging against movements of the U.S. dollar vs. the Canadian dollar. Our view.