Pfizer 2022 guidance comes shy of expectations despite strong growth projection

New York, U.S. | Xinhua | U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. on Tuesday presented weaker-than-expected operating guidance for 2022 leading to material loss of its stock price.

Pfizer expects to realize 98 billion to 102 billion U.S. dollars of revenues in 2022 and the mid-point of the guidance range represents a 23-percent growth from that in 2021.

Pfizer would have 103.2 billion dollars of revenues of consensus estimate, according to market information supplier FactSet.

Pfizer raised its forecast on revenues from COVID-19 vaccine in 2022 by 1 billion dollars to 32 billion dollars, which is still lower than FactSet consensus estimate of 34.8 billion dollars and 33.79 billion dollars of consensus forecast released by market data supplier Refinitiv.

Antivirus pill Paxlovid is projected to generate 22 billion dollars of revenues in 2022, lower than 22.88 billion dollars estimated by ten analysts polled by Refinitiv.

Adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) of Pfizer would range from 6.35 to 6.55 dollars in 2022, lower than FactSet estimate of 6.71 dollars.

“Today we are issuing guidance for the coming year which, if achieved, would represent the highest level of annual revenues and adjusted diluted EPS in Pfizer’s long history,” said Frank D’Amelio, chief financial officer and executive vice president of Pfizer.

There is less potential upside to this guidance through the year, compared to the situation the company faced in 2021 when the vaccine was newly available and few people had received any doses of the vaccine, D’Amelio said.

The stock price of Pfizer shed as much as 6.62 percent at one point in the morning session due to the weaker-than-expected guidance.

The revenues of Pfizer in 2021 jumped 95 percent to 81.288 billion U.S. dollars, which is roughly in line with market expectations.

Meanwhile, the operating results of Pfizer in the fourth quarter of 2021 were mixed with adjusted EPS topping market expectation but revenues lower than expected.

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Xinhua