Pfizer (PFE) earnings Q4 2024

Pfizer on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that beat estimates as sales of the company’s Covid products topped expectations and its broad cost-cutting efforts took hold.

Here’s what the company reported for the fourth quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG: 

• Earnings per share: 63 cents adjusted vs. 46 cents expected
• Revenue: $17.76 billion vs. $17.36 billion expected

Shares of Pfizer rose 2% in premarket trading Tuesday.

The results cap off a critical year for Pfizer, which has been pursuing broad cost cuts as it recovers from the rapid decline of its Covid business and stock price over the last two years. The company in December said it expects $500 million in savings this year from its cost-cutting program. 

The company booked fourth-quarter net income of $410 million, or 7 cents per share. That compares with a net loss of $3.37 billion, or a loss of 60 cents per share, during the same period a year ago. 

Excluding certain items, including restructuring charges and costs associated with intangible assets, the company posted earnings per share of 63 cents for the quarter.

Pfizer reported revenue of $17.76 billion for the fourth quarter, up 22% from the same period a year ago.

The company reiterated the full-year 2025 outlook it provided in December, forecasting sales of $61 billion to $64 billion, with a similar performance from its Covid products as seen in 2024. Pfizer noted that changes to the Medicare program resulting from the Inflation Reduction Act will hurt sales by $1 billion. 

Stripping out one-time items, the company expects 2025 earnings to be in the range of $2.80 to $3 a share. 

But Wall Street is likely more concerned with Pfizer’s long-term financial health and its drug pipeline. Investors are also watching to see whether Pfizer can win a slice of the booming weight loss drug market with the once-daily version of its experimental obesity pill, danuglipron. 

Pfizer appears to have dodged a proxy battle with activist investor Starboard Value, which has a roughly $1 billion stake in the pharmaceutical giant, for now. The deadline passed for nominating board members for this year.

Pfizer’s fourth-quarter beat was fueled in part by higher-than-expected demand for its Covid products.

Paxlovid, its antiviral pill, brought in $727 million in sales for the quarter, up from the loss of $3.1 billion in revenue recorded in the year-earlier period. But the same quarter last year included a revenue reversal tied to the planned return of around 6.5 million Paxlovid doses from the U.S. government. 

Pfizer said the growth was driven by strong demand, particularly in the U.S. during a recent Covid wave, and a one-time contract delivery of 1 million treatment courses of Paxlovid to the federal government. Analysts expected the drug to bring in $630.7 million in sales, according to StreetAccount. 

The company’s Covid shot booked $3.4 billion in revenue, down $2 billion from the same period a year ago. Pfizer said the decline was mainly driven by fewer Covid vaccinations globally and lower contracted doses of its shot. 

Analysts expected $3 billion in sales for the shot, according to StreetAccount.