Pfizer tops Street 2Q forecasts

Our second-quarter and year-to-date financial performance is the result of continued business momentum, driven by solid execution of recent product launches in our Innovative Products business …

Adjusted earnings per share were $0.56, lower than the prior year’s $0.58. Earnings for the pharmaceutical giant for the quarter ending June 28 were $2.6 billion, down 9.8 per cent from the year-ago period.

The GEP segment recorded a 22% decline in revenues, which came in at $5.1 billion. (MRK) on Tuesday reported second-quarter profit of $687 million.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. But the maker of Viagra and the painkiller Celebrex topped expectations for the quarter and raised its 2015 forecast. Compounding that difficulty was the strong dollar, which dented revenues by $1 billion.

Pfizer said revenue grew 1 percent in the quarter, excluding the impact of foreign exchange rates. Revenues slid 7.2 per cent to $11.85 billion.

Pfizer raised the midpoint of its full-year 2015 revenue guidance from a prior range of $44 to $46 billion to a new range of $45 to $46 billion.

Vaccines are one of Pfizer’s core research areas, and the drugmaker has expanded its work there with the goal of essentially protecting customers from cradle to grave. The drug managed to rake in sales of $140 million, against the $95.3 million forecasted by analysts. In pre-market trade, Pfizer was up 1.4 per cent at $34.85.

Shares of the drugmaker, a company used in calculating in the Dow Jones industrial average, have climbed 10 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has stayed almost flat. The stock has dropped 2 percent in the last 12 months.