Tuesday was a fairly eventful news day for U.S. pharmaceutical sector company Pfizer (NYSE: PFE). It reported third-quarter earnings and updated investors about its relationship with an activist investor in its ranks. Neither of these occurrences impressed the market, however, and the company's share price dipped by more than 1%. That was on a day when the S&P 500 index closed in the black, albeit modestly at 0.2%.

Strong growth and twin beats weren't enough for investors

Well before market open, Pfizer unveiled those quarterly results. These showed that the company's revenue was $17.7 billion, for a strong 32% year-over-year improvement when factoring sales of Covid treatment Paxlovid and vaccine Comirnaty. If those two high-profile products are taken out of the calculation, the healthcare giant's top-line growth would have been 14%.

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As for earnings, Pfizer's non-GAAP (adjusted) bottom line flipped into the black. The company earned a profit of just over $6 billion, quite a change from the $968 million loss in the year-ago period.

This meant a pair of convincing beats for the company. On average, analysts following Pfizer were expecting less than $15 billion for sales and a mere $0.62 per share in adjusted net income.

What likely overshadowed this for investors was remarks by CEO Albert Bourla on the analyst call discussing the quarter. Addressing criticism by recently arrived activist investor Starboard Value, Bourla said of Pfizer's recent spate of acquisitions that Starboard officials "claim that we wasted money with business development. We have a very different view. We think -- and our board thinks -- that the deals are transformational."

Bullish about the immediate future

Signaling confidence in that strategy and buttressed by those growth figures, Pfizer raised its revenue and profitability guidance for the entirety of 2024. It now feels it will earn $61 billion to $64 billion on the top line and post adjusted earnings of $2.75 to $2.95 per share. Both ranges are up from the previous guidance of $59.5 billion to $62.5 billion and $2.45 to $2.65, respectively.

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