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Stock Watch: Pfizer’s Q2 Windows Into Wider 2024 Issues

Vaccine Sales And China Continue As Second-Quarter Headwinds

 
• By Andy Smith

One company’s weak quarterly sales should not make a pharmaceutical winter. But combine the lower sales of major vaccine families across three companies’ portfolios with weak demand in China and it starts to feel chilly.    

Andy Smith
ANDY SMITH OFFERS A LIFE SCIENCE INVESTOR'S PERSPECTIVE ON BIOPHARMA BUSINESS

When Pfizer Inc.* reported second quarter of 2024 results, its stock price initially dipped by 3%, helping the NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical index (DRG) to go down by 2% before a recovery that saw Pfizer’s stock price finish up by over 2% and the DRG closing down by under 1%. Pfizer’s second-quarter revenues grew by 2% on the same quarter of 2023 to beat analysts’ consensus estimates by the same margin. (Also see "Pfizer Bullish On Danuglipron’s Position In Oral GLP-1 Race" - Scrip, 30 July, 2024.) Like other companies in second-quarter earnings season that received positive investor receptions, Pfizer raised its full-year 2024 sales guidance by just under 2% at the midpoint. Foreign currency movements “had a minimal incremental impact” on Pfizer’s financial guidance since it was last issued in May. In comparison, foreign exchange did have an impact on AstraZeneca PLC’s full-year financial guidance at the start of earnings season, probably due to its exposure to China and the almost 1% weakening of the Chinese yuan against the US dollar in the last quarter.

There were winners and losers in Pfizer’s second-quarter results. On the face of it, Pfizer’s second-quarter oncology sales were a...

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