Pfizer shares sink on weak 2024 revenue, profit forecasts
Albert Bourla, chief executive officer of Pfizer Inc., speaks during China Development Forum (CDF) 2023 at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on March 25, 2023 in Beijing, China.
Lintao Zhang | Getty Images
Pfizer on Wednesday forecast 2024 revenue and profit below Wall Street expectations, sending its shares down 7% in premarket trading even as it raised cost-cut target by $500 million.
Sales of Paxlovid and the vaccine Pfizer makes with German partner BioNTech had boosted the company’s revenue over the last two years.
But a drop in annual vaccination rates and demand for the treatments in 2023 have forced the company to launch a program in October to cut jobs and expenses to save at least $4 billion a year.
The company, which employs nearly 83,000 employees globally, in November cut 500 jobs at its Sandwich, Kent site in the UK.
Pfizer also expects to complete the $43 billion acquisition of cancer drugmaker Seagen on Thursday. Its products are expected to add $3.1 billion to revenue next year, with another $8 billion coming from sales of Pfizer’s vaccine comirnaty and treatment Paxlovid for Covid-19.
The U.S. drugmaker expects its annual revenue to be in the range of $58.5 billion to $61.5 billion compared with analysts’ average estimate of $63.17 billion, according to LSEG data.
The company also forecast adjusted profit in the range of $2.05 to $2.25 per share, lower than analysts’ expectation of $3.16.
