Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) stock had a blowout Q4 2021 quarter, but shares are pulling back down with the benchmark indexes. Pfizer has become a household name thanks to its COVID-19 vaccines as its medical products reached over 1.4 billion patients worldwide.
The company expects COVID-19 to be around for the foreseeable future and provides the tools to mitigate its damaging effects on patients and the reopening trend. The company expects to deliver at least two billion doses to low and middle-income countries in 2022.
The COVID-19 oral antiviral Paxlovid will generate $22 billion in sales in 2022. It also produced data from Kaiser Permanente Southern California that three doses of its Comirnaty vaccine showed better effectiveness against Omicron-related and Delta-related hospitalizations. Prudent investors seeking exposure in a pure-play COVID-19 vaccine leader can watch for opportunistic pullbacks in shares of Pfizer.
Q4 Fiscal 2021 Earnings Release
On Feb. 8, 2021, Pfizer released its fiscal fourth-quarter 2021 results for the quarter ending in December 2021. The company reported an earnings-per-share (EPS) profit of $1.08 versus $0.87 consensus analyst estimates, a $0.21 beat. The company saw revenues grow 104% year-over-year (YoY) to $23.84 billion, beating analyst estimates for $24.2 billion. Vaccine revenues rose to $13.9 billion versus $2 billion in the year-ago period. Oncology revenue grew 7% YoY.
Lower Guidance for Full-Year 2022
Pfizer lowered its full-year 2022 estimates for EPS coming in between $6.35 to $6.55 versus $6.73 consensus analyst estimates. Full-year 2022 revenues are expected between $98 billion to $102 billion versus $104.07 billion consensus analyst estimates. Based on supply contracts, the company expected $32 billion in sales for Comirnaty and $22 billion in revenues for Paxlovid.
Conference Call Takeaways
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla stated the company had reached nearly 1.4 billion patients worldwide with its medicines and vaccines, underscoring Pfizer’s wide-reaching patient impact. Revenues rose 92% in 2021to $81.3 billion, and adjusted EPS also grew 92% to $4.42. CEO Bourla feels the company can do even better in 2022, breaking $100 billion in annual sales and adjusted EPS midpoint of $6.45. Its COVID-19 vaccine has made a tremendous impact on society as it estimates saving over 1 million lives and preventing over 10 million hospitalizations.
COVID-19 is unlikely to be completely eradicated in the foreseeable future due to its ability to mutate, and people can become reinfected by the same strains over again. He commented,
“At Pfizer, we are keenly aware of our responsibility to continue to invest in R&D to maintain our leadership in providing these tools and other meaningful solutions to the world. That’s why we continue to develop and test different versions of our vaccine to potentially address variants of concern as they emerge, and why we are currently working on a new Omicron-based vaccine candidate and on a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine candidate. It’s also why just two months after receiving Emergency Use Authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration for Paxlovid, we are already working on a potential next-generation oral COVID-19 treatment.
Going forward, we are confident in our ability to maintain this leadership position because of our significant investments in R&D combined with our ability to move at the speed of science without compromising quality or safety, the strong credibility we have earned with governments, healthcare providers and consumers combined with our extensive global field presence, and our unparalleled capabilities for high-quality manufacturing at scale.”
The company continues to invest in mRNA technology, which has emerged to be a flexible technology with potential applications for many infectious diseases, cancer, rare genetic disorders, and auto-immune diseases. The technology has game-changing potential as Pfizer is a leader in this space.
Opportunistic Pullback Levels
Using the rifle charts on the weekly and daily time frames provides a precision view of the landscape for PFE stock. The weekly rifle chart has a downtrend with a falling 5-period moving average (MA) at $52 as 15-period MA flattens at $53.97. The weekly 50-period MA sits near the $45.47 Fibonacci (fib) level. The weekly stochastic formed a mini inverse pup that fell through the 50-band.
The weekly market structure low (MSL) buy triggered the $43.83. The daily rifle chart downtrend has a falling 5-period MA at $49.45 followed by the 15-period MA at $51.40 with a daily 200-period MA at $46.56. The daily stochastic formed a mini inverse pup through the 20-band.
The daily lower BBs sits at $47.48. Prudent investors can look for opportunistic pullback levels at the $47.96 fib, $46.81 fib, $45.05 fib, $44.19 fib, $43.08 fib, and the $41.09 fib level. Upside trajectories range from the $55.47 fib level to the $64.81 fib.