FOCUS-Pfizer earnings, helped by Viagra, top forecasts
Thursday July 9, 10:10 pm Eastern Time
biz.yahoo.com
Excerpts of analysts comments:
''It was a great quarter for Pfizer and it shows Viagra has already clearly become a huge franchise for them,'' said Ian Sanderson, an SG Cowen Securities pharmaceuticals analyst.
David Shedlarz, Pfizer's chief financial officer, said in a statement he felt comfortable with the consensus view of analysts that Pfizer would deliver 1998 diluted per share earnings in the range of $2.05 to $2.10.
Salomon Smith Barney analyst Mark Striker said he believed Shedlarz' 1998 earnings guidance was ''conservative'' and that Pfizer might well boost it to a higher target later this year if Viagra sales continue on their stellar sales path.
''Pfizer's second quarter looks great,'' said Striker, who added Viagra was a key reason the company's U.S. pharmaceutical sales soared 64 percent compared with the 1997 quarter -- reaching $1.8 billion.
Striker said he was also impressed sales of Pfizer's antidepressant Zoloft hit $398 million, up 23 percent from the year-ago quarter.
He noted sales of Norvasc, the company's flagship hypertension and angina drug, jumped 18 percent to $618 million in the second quarter.
Also noteworthy, Striker said, was the fact Pfizer's alliance revenues leaped to $198 million from $59 million in the 1997 second quarter. The revenues are from co-marketing Warner-Lambert Co. (WLA - news) anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor and Aricept, a treatment for Alzheimer's disease developed by Eisai Co. Ltd. (4523.T). |
