Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, July 30, 2021

Article Excerpt

PFIZER INC., $42.81, New York symbol PFE, is a top pick for 2021. The company is one of the world’s largest makers of prescription drugs. Its top-selling brands include Lyrica (epilepsy), Celebrex (arthritis pain), Prevnar (pneumonia) and Enbrel (rheumatoid arthritis). With the March 2021 payment, Pfizer raised your dividend by 2.6%. Investors now receive $0.39 a share instead of $0.38. The new annual rate of $1.56 yields a solid 3.6%. Thanks to strong demand for its two-shot COVID-19 vaccine, developed in partnership with German drugmaker BioNTech (Nasdaq symbol BNTX), Pfizer’s sales in the three months ended June 30, 2021, soared 92.4%, to $18.98 billion from $9.86 billion a year earlier. That beat the consensus forecast of $18.74 billion. The vaccine contributed $7.8 billion to its sales in the quarter, or 41% of the total. If you disregard unusual items, Pfizer’s overall earnings in the quarter jumped 74.1%, to $6.05 billion from $3.47 billion. Due to more shares outstanding, earnings per share rose at a..