Before the market opened on Tuesday, the blue-chip biotech company Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) delivered solid 2021 full-year and fourth-quarter numbers. Driven by sales from the COVID-19 vaccine, the company beat its guidance of manufacturing over 3 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses in FY21.
Though the company surpassed earnings, some numbers came below analyst expectations sending shares down as much as 6.6% during intraday trading.
Pfizer reported full-year revenue of $81.3 billion in 2021, up 92% year-over-year. Last year's sales for the vaccine, also known as Comirnaty, totaled the highest annual sales for any pharmaceutical product at $36.78 million, while Paxlovid sales totaled $76 million.
Q4 adjusted earnings grew 152% year-over-year to $1.08, 20 cents higher than analysts' estimates of $0.88 per share. For the full fiscal 2021 year, adjusted earnings grew 96% to $4.42 per share.
FINANCIAL OUTLOOK
Pfizer gave its full-year fiscal 2022 outlook and increased guidance from Comirnaty sales based on its current business momentum.
Revenues for FY22 are projected to be between $98 billion and $102 billion, including Covid-19 vaccine sales of $32 billion and Covid-19 antiviral sales of $22 billion. Although the antiviral sales guidance met the consensus estimate, the Covid-19 vaccine fell short by $2.8 billion.
Pfizer has handled its projections differently since it began laying out guidance for its Covid-19 vaccine last year than for other products. Rather than assuming full-year sales, Pfizer has only reported sales contracted so far.
On Tuesday, the company only took into account Covid-19 vaccine sales agreements for 2022 that are already signed when it announced guidance for the fiscal year.
Pfizer CEO Albert Boula said, "I don't want myself to give guidance that these numbers will go up, because that has very different weight, but clearly, if you see the trends in what is happening, it is a very reasonable assumption that these numbers will go up."
CONSENSUS
While Pfizer says demand for the vaccine may wane, it expects growing demand for the treatment. Turning to Wall Street, Pfizer has a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on nine Buys and nine Holds assigned in the past three months.
The average Pfizer price target of $60.13 implies 16.31% upside potential.
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