Pfizer On The New Lows List. Big Dividend Fails To Attract Buyers.

That Pfizer
PFE
is making the new 52-weeks lows list is not a proud moment for the company. You might think that a big, well-known healthcare firm offering a 6.6% dividend would attract investors. So far, this year that hasn’t been the case as the stock just keeps dropping despite the nice yield and name brand quality.

The drug maker is a big one with a market capitalization of $143 billion and average daily volume on the New York Stock Exchange of 42.79 million shares. This year’s earnings are up by 20%. Over the past 5 years, they’ve declined by 27%. The forward price-earnings ratio is 9 and it trades at 1.61 times book.

The daily price chart for Pfizer looks like this:

It’s dropped below the December 2023 low and continues to trade below both the down trending 50-day and the down trending 200-day moving average.

Pfizer’s not the only one making new lows.

Another drug manufacturer —Biogen
BIIB
— on the list as well. With a market cap of $29 billion and a price-earnings ratio of 23.87, the company’s earnings this year are up by 5.13%. The EPS record over the past 5 years is a negative 18.05%. No dividend is paid.

Wells Fargo
WFC
in February downgraded the stock from “overweight” to “equal weight” with a price target reduced from $315 to $240. A month earlier, UBS had downgraded it from “buy” to “neutral” with their price target reduced from $311 to $276.

Here is the daily price chart for Biogen:

The stock in late March slid below the February support level of $215 and has now dropped to below $200. Biogen trades far below both the down trending 50-day and 200-day moving averages.

Wolfspeed is making an appearance on the new lows list. The semiconductor maker is suffering from earnings this year that are down by 234% and up over the past 5 years by just 1.17%. Market capitalization is $2.98 billion. Debt sits at 4.60 times shareholder equity with a current ratio of 5.13.

Citigroup
C
, JP Morgan, Oppenheimer and Wells Fargo analysts this month have all downgraded their ratings on Wolfspeed. The company has a “fiscal 3rd quarter” earnings call slated for May 1st.

Citigroup took their assessment of the stock from “buy” to “neutral” with a price target reduction of from $95 to $66. JP Morgan took it from “overweight” to “neutral” with the price target reduced from $100 to $65.

Oppenheimer downgraded Wolfspeed from “outperform” to “perform” and Wells Fargo took their rating from “overweight” to “equal weight” with a reduction in the price target of from $55 to $30.

The stock’s daily price chart is here:

The price is dipping below the late February support level. Both the 200-day and the 50-day moving averages trend downward. The relative strength index shows a positive divergence to price.

Stats courtesy of FinViz.com. Charts courtesy of Stockcharts.com.

More price chart analysis and commentary at johnnavin.substack.com.