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

To: Uncle Frank who wrote (5342)	9/2/1998 2:44:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9523

09/02 14:05 Pfizer jumps as R&D titan lures bargain-hunters NEW YORK, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Shares of Pfizer Inc. <PFE.N> jumped Wednesday as investors took advantage of recent weakness in the stock to build positions in the giant pharmaceutical company, analysts said. Pfizer, maker of the blockbuster impotence drug Viagra and known for its heavy research focus and marketing muscle, was up 4-1/2 to 101-1/16 in afternoon trade. The shares reached an all-time high of 118-11/16 on July 13 but have fallen almost 19 percent in recent weeks amid a broad sell-off in the U.S. stock market, spurred in part by Asian and Russian economic turmoil. "People are taking another look at Pfizer because its earnings growth is one of the highest in the sector and it has the deepest pipeline" of future drugs, said EVEREN Securities drug analyst Jeffrey Kraws. Kraws said Pfizer shares, like those of other U.S. blue-chip drug companies, slid in recent weeks not because of any worsening of fundamentals but because investors were intent on taking profits during the sell-off. "They weren't paying attention to Pfizer's real story. It is the highest-quality pharmaceutical company out there from a management standpoint and from a product pipeline standpoint, and that's why it's coming back," Kraws said. The New York-based company has said it plans to spend $2.3 billion for research and development in 1998, more than any of its U.S. peers. It broke ground Tuesday for a new 400,000-square-foot research facility in New London, Conn. Kraws said Pfizer was trading at 37 times his 1999 per-share earnings forecast of $2.70, compared to a price-to-earnings ratio of 33 for the U.S. drug group. But he said Pfizer's higher P/E was warranted because the company's rate of growth in per-share earnings would likely exceed 21 percent, versus only 14 percent for the overall drug group.