11:01
Traffic jam:   4
$
92.5919
100.2704

Pfizer acquires Arena Pharmaceuticals for $6.7bn in cash

13 December 2021
2997
2 min.
3
Pfizer acquires Arena Pharmaceuticals for $6.7bn in cash

Buying for cash

Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA) shares rose 93% in premarket trading on Monday after Pfizer (PFE) announced a $6.7bn cash acquisition at $100 a share double the current price. Market analysts are raising their forecasts for Pfizer stock.

Pfizer (PFE) has used its strong growth over the past two years to buy pharmaceutical company Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA) to expand its product range and boost sales.

The deal is worth about $6.7bn. Pfizer will pay $100 in cash for each common share of Arena, which had a price of $49.94 at the close of trading on Friday.

Pfizer shares, up 43.4% YTD, were up 1.25% in premarket trading on Monday.

Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA) shares, down 35% YTD, were up 92.5% at the time of writing.

Pfizer said in a press release that Arena's portfolio includes a range of diverse and promising therapeutics in development for immune-inflammatory diseases in gastroenterology, dermatology and cardiology, which Pfizer believes will potentially drive sales growth through 2025 and beyond.

Pfizer has a strong cash balance, allowing it to make large acquisitions. Pfizer recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.40 per share, up about 2.6% from its previous dividend of $0.39. Pfizer posted a net profit of $8.146 billion in the last 3 fiscal quarters alone.

Pfizer shares

Pfizer shares rose after a UK study showed that the drugmaker's third shot of the Covid vaccine provides robust protection against the Omicron strain, and analysts at UBS raised their ratings and price targets.

The UK Health Safety Agency said that Pfizer's booster vaccine provides around 75% protection against symptomatic infections from Omicron, based on a study of 581 people in whom the new strain was identified, compared with around 90% against the Delta variant. Pfizer shares were also boosted by an upgrade from 'neutral' to 'buy' and a $52 to $60 target price from UBS analyst.

Analyst believes that sales of Pfizer's antiviral pill Covid Paxlovid will reach at least $14bn next year, 40% above Wall Street expectations.

Meanwhile, according to the UBS analyst, Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccines and pills have a maximum sales potential of $50bn in 2022.

Companies3 in the news

UBS Group AG
2 place
Pfizer
3 place
Section:

Discussion

Rating companies
Tesla
14 Mention
Instagram
13 Mention
JP Morgan Chase
12 Mention
Walt Disney Company
12 Mention
Ford Motor Company
10 Mention
Netflix
10 Mention
Amazon
9 Mention

NEW YORK NEWS

News from GlobalNY.biz is the freshest and most relevant information about high-profile events in the region. The task of the resource's news feed is to convey to readers with maximum accuracy and objectivity information about important events in business, politics, economy, healthcare, culture and other spheres of life in New York.
GlobalNY.biz news is a coverage of economic processes taking place in New York, the latest news of public life, incidents and an overview of political events. New York news is information about the activities of small and medium-sized businesses, the work of housing and communal services and utilities, the implementation of significant projects.
The site's journalists describe not only the life of the region, but also talk about the current state of the US economy. Everything you need to know about innovations in the field of industry and agriculture, economy and power is collected in the "News" section at GlobalNY.biz.
New York news quickly informs the reader, shows the real picture and opens up hot topics. Communication with government structures and business enables us to provide our readers with reliable, information-rich material. The main page of the portal contains the key news of New York!
Alena Potapova

Development Director
Population
8112600343
Died this year
14231333
Born this year
35011598