Deal set to lift profit

Article Excerpt

PFIZER INC. $35 (New York symbol PFE; Income Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 6.1 billion; Market cap: $213.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.1; Dividend yield: 3.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pfizer.com) is one of the world’s leading prescription drug makers. Top-selling brands include Lyrica (epilepsy), Celebrex (arthritis pain), Prevnar (pneumonia) and Enbrel (rheumatoid arthritis). Many of the company’s drugs will lose their patent protection in the next few years. In response, Pfizer is buying smaller drugmakers with promising products. Its latest purchase is Medivation Inc. (Nasdaq symbol MDVN). That firm makes Xtandi, a treatment for prostate cancer. The drug has annual sales of $2.2 billion. Pfizer will pay $14 billion, which includes Medivation’s debt, when it completes the purchase later this year. The company held cash and investments of $20.9 billion, or $3.45 a share, as of June 30, 2016, so it can comfortably afford this acquisition. The new operations will immediately add $0.05 a share to the company’s…