By Jared S. Hopkins


Pfizer shares climbed Tuesday after the pharmaceutical company beat fourth-quarter estimates and reaffirmed its full-year guidance.

The positive quarter caps a busy year of cost cutting and pressure from an activist investor as Pfizer has sought to turn around company performance. Shares rose 1.2% to $26.51 soon after market open.

Sales for the fourth quarter rose to $17.76 billion, compared with $17.35 billion from analysts polled by FactSet. Pfizer reported $14.57 billion in sales a year ago.

The New York-based pharma giant saw strong sales from drugs used to treat a range of diseases, including heart drug Vyndaquel, up 61% to $1.55 billion, and from oncology drugs, which saw sales grow 27% to more than $4 billion. New cancer drugs from the $43 billion acquisition of Seagen also aided sales.

Pfizer reaffirmed its 2025 guidance of revenue between $61 billion and $64 billion, and of adjusted per-share earnings of between $2.80 and $3.

Excluding certain items, earnings totaled 63 cents a share, compared with 47 cents a share forecast by analysts.

Investors have been cool to Pfizer, with shares down some 50% since record highs in 2021. Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla has been looking to turn around the company's performance, taking steps such as a multi-billion-dollar cost-cutting program.

A closely watched weight-loss drug is expected to finish testing in the coming weeks, and Bourla has said the company is committed to being in the white-hot obesity market.


Write to Jared S. Hopkins at jared.hopkins@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-04-25 0958ET