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Biotech / Medical : PFE (Pfizer) How high will it go? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: P.M.Freedman who wrote (7935)	6/15/1999 3:36:00 PM
From: Joe S Pack	Respond to of 9523

Whatever will happen within another 2 days I added some more LEAPS (2001, 90 strike) as part of long term core building strategy. Will cost dollar average if it goes down again. Next year I will be happy for what I have done today. -Nat

To: P.M.Freedman who wrote (7935)	6/15/1999 6:39:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9523

Merrill sees US drug makers meeting Q2 forecasts Tuesday June 15, 5:20 pm Eastern Time NEW YORK, June 15 (Reuters) - Merrill Lynch & Co analyst Steven Tighe said Tuesday he expected the largest U.S. drug makers to meet or exceed Wall Street earnings expectations in the second quarter, ending June 30. Tighe's earnings forecast includes American Home Products Corp (NYSE:AHP - news), Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY - news), Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY - news), Merck & Co Inc. (NYSE:MRK - news), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE - news), Pharmacia & Upjohn , Schering-Plough Corp. (NYSE:SGP - news) and Warner-Lambert Co (NYSE:WLA - news). Separately, Merrill Lynch said analyst Daniel Lemaitre had forecast that diversified healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ - news) would meet or beat Wall Street second-quarter earnings forecasts. Tighe did not specify second-quarter forecasts for companies he covers, but current Wall Street expectations are for double-digit earnings growth for most companies in the sector, based upon consensus forecasts of analysts polled by First Call Corp. An exception is expected to be American Home Products, with a consensus forecast of $0.34 per share, down from $0.39 in the 1998 second quarter. The Madison, N.J., company warned on June 2 that its second-quarter and full-year earnings would be hurt by anemic sales of crop protection and livestock health products. Tighe said the drug group currently is trading at a 23 percent premium to the broad U.S. stock market, based upon the relative price to earnings ratio of the drug group versus companies in the broad U.S. market. Price/earnings ratio is the price of a stock divided by its annual per share earnings. Tighe said investors remain focused on the possibility that the federal Medicare program could be reformed to include, for the first time, prescription drug coverage for senior citizens. The program currently only covers in-hospital drug coverage. Some analysts have speculated that once the federal government becomes responsible for paying for such drug coverage it will be tempted to impose some form of price controls on prescription medicines, hurting earnings of drug makers. ''We do not expect this issue as a risk factor to go away anytime soon,'' Tighe said, noting President Bill Clinton is expected later this month to unveil his reform plan including such drug coverage. Tighe said the industry's pipeline of new products was ''sparse'' in comparison to the larger number of drugs launched in previous years. ''The current sparseness is not a reflection of decreased innovation,'' he said, but instead a reflection of ''artificially high'' numbers of new products approved in recent years due to faster reviews by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.