Pfizer reports big profit and revenue beats, as COVID drug sales increase by nearly $9 billion

Shares of Pfizer Inc.
PFE,
-2.30%
gained 0.3% in premarket trading Thursday, after the pharmaceutical giant reported big second-quarter profit and revenue beats, driven primarily by “strong contributions” from its COVID drugs Comirnaty and Paxlovid. Net income rose to $9.91 billion, or $1.73 a share, from $5.56 billion, or 98 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share of $2.04 beat the FactSet consensus of $1.72. Revenue increased by $8.84 billion, or 46.8%, to $27.74 billion, well above the FactSet consensus of $25.49 billion. Excluding growth from COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty and from COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid, revenue grew $128 million, or 1%. For 2022, Pfizer nudged up its guidance for adjusted EPS to $6.30 to $6.45 from $6.25 to $6.45 and affirmed its revenue outlook of $98.0 billion to $102 billion, which includes expected Comirnaty revenue of about $32 billion and Paxlovid revenue of about $22 billion. The stock has tacked on 2.1% over the past three months through Wednesday, while the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.64%
has lost 6.2%.