Pfizer (PFE) Shares Rise on Q1 Earnings Beat, Powered by Eliquis

Posted on by

TLDR

  • Pfizer reported Q1 adjusted EPS of $0.75, topping Wall Street’s consensus estimate of $0.72
  • Quarterly revenue reached $13.8 billion, supported by strong demand for blood thinner Eliquis
  • Net earnings declined 9% year-on-year to $2.7 billion, while diluted EPS fell 10% annually
  • Full-year 2026 guidance is reaffirmed: adjusted EPS projected at $2.80–$3.00, revenue projected at $59.5B–$62.5B
  • PFE stock gained roughly 0.5% in premarket trading, climbing to approximately $26.33

(SeaPRwire) –   Pfizer kicked off 2026 with a Q1 earnings beat that pushed its stock up around 0.5% in premarket trading to $26.33.

Pfizer Inc., ticker PFE
PFE Stock Card

The pharmaceutical giant posted adjusted earnings of $0.75 per share, exceeding the $0.72 per share that analysts had forecast. Revenue came in at $13.8 billion for the first quarter.

Eliquis, Pfizer’s blood thinner and one of its top revenue drivers, continued to deliver strong performance. The drug remains a core contributor to results, as the company’s older products have held up better than expected.

CFO David Denton highlighted 22% operational revenue growth from recently launched and acquired products. This is a metric Pfizer will aim to continue building on moving forward.

Net earnings, however, did see a decline. The company reported $2.7 billion in net income, down 9% from the same period last year. Diluted EPS came in at $0.47, a 10% annual drop.

Full-Year Guidance Held Steady

Pfizer reaffirmed its 2026 financial outlook, keeping the guidance it first laid out back in December. The company still expects adjusted EPS of $2.80 to $3.00 and full-year revenue of $59.5 billion to $62.5 billion.

Analysts had forecast $2.96 per share and $61.4 billion in full-year revenue, both of which fall within Pfizer’s guided range.

Pfizer also confirmed it does not expect any stock buybacks to occur in 2026. This guidance holds regardless of how financial results unfold over the rest of the year.

CEO Albert Bourla struck an upbeat tone. “We are off to a strong start in 2026,” he said, pointing to positive Phase 3 clinical readouts and encouraging mid-stage development data.

Bourla specifically called out oncology and obesity as two therapeutic areas where he believes Pfizer is “positioned to lead.”

Patent Cliff Still in the Picture

The patent cliff remains one of Pfizer’s largest near-term challenges. Key patent protections for blockbuster drugs, including Eliquis, are set to expire before the end of the decade.

Pfizer has been working to soften the impact of this event. The company has reached agreements with generic manufacturers to extend exclusivity protections for certain products, including Vyndaqel.

It has also been expanding its product lineup through acquisitions and in-house development to bulk up its pipeline.

The R&D pipeline is advancing across multiple fronts, with results in oncology and obesity drawing particular attention from the company’s leadership.

On a reported basis, Q1 revenue grew 5% year-on-year to $14.5 billion, which was above market expectations heading into the earnings release.

The beat across both earnings and revenue delivered a more solid first-quarter result for investors than many had been anticipating.

This article is provided by a third-party content provider. SeaPRwire (https://www.seaprwire.com/) makes no warranties or representations regarding its content.

Category: Top News, Daily News

SeaPRwire provides global press release distribution services for companies and organizations, covering more than 6,500 media outlets, 86,000 editors and journalists, and over 3.5 million end-user desktop and mobile apps. SeaPRwire supports multilingual press release distribution in English, Japanese, German, Korean, French, Russian, Indonesian, Malay, Vietnamese, Chinese, and more.