Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, July 9, 2021

Article Excerpt

PFIZER INC., $39.61, 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 high 3.9%. Due to the discovery of impurities in the manufacturing process, Pfizer has stopped shipments of Chantix (sold outside the U.S. as Champix), a drug that helps patients quit cigarette smoking. The company expects to fix these problems and resume shipments in the next few weeks. The shutdown should have little impact on Pfizer’s results. In the first quarter of 2021, Chantix sales totalled $217 million, or 1% of the $14.58 billion in total sales. Chantix sales are also down 19.6% from $270 million a year earlier, mainly due to the loss of patent protection in…