Pfizer (PFE) to continue its BULL run in 2022!Fundamental Analysis
Pfizer, Inc. has consistently been one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world for the better part of the last two decades. The company has a remarkable history going back all the way to the year 1849, when Pfizer was founded in Brooklyn, New York. The large cap pharma giant has developed a well-balanced and deep portfolio of products in key areas like Inflammation and Immunology, Internal Medicine, Oncology, Rare Disease, Vaccines etc.
However, it seems that as a result of the success of Pfizer's vaccine COVID-19 treatments, many investors have forgotten about the rest of Pfizer's business and how successful it continues to be.
It is true that the sales of its COVID-19 vaccine ($36 billion in 2021 alone) have managed to nearly double Pfizer's annual revenue from $41.9 billion in 2020 to over $78 billion in 2021.
What's even more important is that the strong sales growth has also translated into higher profits for the company as its profit margins before interest and taxes, referred to as EBIT margin, have risen over the past year. This shows that Pfizer has managed its R&D and all other fixed and operating costs associated with development, production and distribution efficiently, thus improving the profitability ratios of the company. The large cap pharma giant has also managed to almost triple the size of its free cash flow to more than $29 billion over the past twelve months compared to only $11.6 billion in 2020. More free cash flow makes a business more robust, giving Pfizer more money to invest in research and development of new products, pay more in dividends, or strengthen its balance sheet.
The company currently has a total of 94 drugs in the pipeline spread across critical treatment areas like Inflammation and Immunology, Internal Medicine, Oncology, Rare Disease, Vaccines etc. all waiting regulatory approval.
- Phase 1(27); Phase 2 (29); Phase 3 (29); Registration (9)
Looking at the outstanding track record of Pfizer's drug development capabilities, we can easily state that the company will continue to be a leader in the sector that it operates in.
Macro view
The equity markets in the US are currently undergoing a process of meaningful repricing and re-valuation of what companies are actually worth, as everyone is getting ready for the Federal Reserve to start raising interest rates in the US and tighten its monetary policy. In a rising interest rate environment, investors tend to move away from expensive high-growth stocks trading at unreasonably high P/E and P/S valuations as the tighter monetary policy environment makes it much more difficult and more expensive for such companies to borrow and invest capital and produce the high earnings growth that investors expect from them. Well-established large cap Healthcare and Biotech stocks are considered to be least correlated with the monetary policy situation in the country as they tend to trade more on FDA drug approvals and drug-related announcements rather than actual earnings per share. Most of the leaders in this space also have a substantial pricing power, as people using their medicines are doing so because they need them and because the drugs are helping them get better. Thus, owning Healthcare and Biotech stocks in a rising inflation and interest rate environment is a defensive play that could end up paying off big time, as stocks in these sectors are rather volatile.
Technical Analysis
The stock has experienced a volatile retracement from its $61 all-time highs and is currently in a corrective phase. However, the uptrend is still intact as the price is well above both the strong horizontal support at $51 and the upward sloping diagonal support (blue line) at $44. Furthermore, the stock is trading above its 5, 20, 50, 200 EMAs, which is also a bullish continuation signal. We expect buyers to start coming in around the $52-53 level, thus establishing the next higher high. Once that is done, the stock will re-test its ATH at around $61 in Q1 of this year. The broad market framework, together with the many positive company related developments in the coming months are expected to bring enough momentum to the stock in order for it to break its previous ATH and set a new one sometime in Q2. Our target for the stock in H1 of 2022 is around the $68 level, which is roughly 30% higher from the current levels.
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