Pfizer Inc.’s sales dropped for the third quarter in a row, which is likely to reignite pressure on the New York drugmaker to make a deal to return to growth.
Sales declined 2 percent to $12.9 billion in the second quarter, the maker of Centrum multivitamins and Chap Stick said Tuesday in a statement. That fell short of the $13.1 billion average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Investors are watching Pfizer’s next move after several quarters of lackluster results, dragged down by its top-selling Prevnar vaccination shots and sales of products that are facing loss of exclusivity, like the erectile dysfunction treatment Viagra.
Earnings Above Estimates
Earnings were 67 cents a share, excluding items, topping the 66-cent average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The company also raised the lower end of its full-year earnings forecast and now anticipates $2.54 to $2.60 a year on that basis.
Pfizer has a busy pipeline across many therapies: the company said Tuesday that as many as 15 in development have potential to be blockbusters, with half that could get regulatory approval by 2020.
The timing is what may concern investors, though. Vamil Divan, an analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG who recently downgraded Pfizer shares to neutral, wrote in a recent note that the pipeline is a “ways off” from creating “major value.” He suggested that even if Pfizer is holding off on large-scale deals, small to mid-size transactions could improve its prospects.
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