Per Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Louise Chen's calculations published March 4, Pfizer's (PFE 0.55%) stock is going to climb by around 75% to reach or surpass $45 over the coming quarters. Chen's hypothesis for the biopharma is likely linked to its ongoing pivot away from its coronavirus medicines like Paxlovid and Comirnaty, and toward the revenue sources of the future, which management has designated as cancer therapeutics.
But is Pfizer a buy today, with a price tag around $26, and with its new oncology pipeline just starting to gear up?
The new strategy is already well underway
There is reason to believe that this company is worth buying on the basis of its strategic plan to become a leader in cancer medicine.
Pfizer currently has 17 cancer programs that are either in phase 3 clinical trials or awaiting a verdict from regulators at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It expects to get approval for and launch two of those programs this year, deliver high-impact data readouts in two others, and initiate up to eight early stage clinical trials in oncology. That's a significant amount of research and development (R&D) activity, to say the least, and gives a handful of catalysts to help bump the stock up.
Management anticipates increasing the top line by as much as 10% on an operational basis in 2024, excluding coronavirus product revenue. And by 2030, the plan is to onboard roughly $45 billion in new revenue via a combination of acquisitions and output from its massive pipeline.
Given how quickly Pfizer was able to switch directions after the apex of its pandemic revenue in 2022, when it brought in more than $100 billion in revenue, it is probable that the company's ongoing comeback will be good for shareholders. So, it may be worth buying the stock before its successful turnaround becomes too obvious, which will likely happen toward the end of this decade.
