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

To: James who wrote (6741)	1/19/1999 5:36:00 PM
From: BigKNY3	Respond to of 9523

Pfizer profit tops forecasts, drug sales strong By Ransdell Pierson NEW YORK, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc. <PFE.N> on Tuesday said strong sales of its leading drugs and revenues from divestitures of its medical device businesses lifted profits to $634 million in the fourth quarter of 1998, up 14 percent from the 1997 quarter. The New York-based drug company best known for its anti-impotence pill Viagra said 1998 fourth-quarter profits, excluding unusual items, jumped 42 percent to $711 million -- or 54 cents per diluted share. That is two cents higher than the consensus forecast of analysts polled by First Call. Pfizer said it had fourth-quarter revenues of almost $3.9 billion, up 26 percent from the 1997 quarter, adding that growth would have been 2 percentage points higher if not for the strong U.S. dollar, which depressed the value of overseas sales. Year-over-year global pharmaceutical sales jumped 31 percent to about $3.4 billion, while U.S. drug revenues bounded 38 percent higher to $2.06 billion, the company said. "Pfizer's fourth-quarter results were a little better than our optimistic expectations and show the company is in very, very good condition with its biggest drugs going strong," said Sergio Traversa, a drug analyst for the New York research firm Mehta Partners. Viagra, launched in April, 1998, contributed much of the growth. It had fourth-quarter global sales of $236 million and 1998 sales of $788 million. Traversa said annual Viagra sales, based upon current growth trends, are likely to hit $2 billion by the year 2001. "That may be below the bullish $5 billion or $10 billion annual forecasts that some analysts had originally made for Viagra, but $2 billion is an impressive reward for Pfizer," Traversa said. Sales of hypertension drug Norvasc jumped 15 percent to $719 million, while those of Pfizer's newer broad-spectrum antibiotic Zithromax surged 42 percent to $379 million in the quarter. On a disappointing note, Pfizer said fourth-quarter sales for its animal health segment slipped 3 percent to $385 million. And it said sales of its consumer health-care group eased 2 percent to $94 million, but would have risen 6 percent if not for the foreign currency drag. Pfizer shares were up about 56 cents to $116.25 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, off their intraday high of 118.37. Traversa said Pfizer was trading at 41 times its projected diluted per-share earnings for the year 2000, versus an average share price/earnings ratio of just 32 for large U.S. pharmaceutical companies. "It's a premium for Pfizer that is fully deserved because the company is growing faster than its peers and has such a strong research and development effort," Traversa said, noting Pfizer's 1998 R&D budget of almost $2.3 billion surpassed all other U.S. drugmakers. Pfizer in the third quarter reported per-share earnings below Wall Street expectations in large part because of increased R&D costs and the expense of hiring 1,100 new salespeople to co-market Monsanto Co.'s <MTC.N> newly approved arthritis drug Celebrex. "The challenge at hand for Pfizer continues to be striking the right balance between growth and investment," Pfizer Chief Financial Officer David Shedlarz said in a statement. Pfizer in the fourth quarter completed the sale of its remaining medical device company, Howmedica, for $1.65 billion. Earlier in 1998 it sold three other medical device divisions -- Schneider, Valleylab and American Medical Systems -- for about $3.8 billion