Pfizer hikes 2025 profit outlook on cost cuts, strong quarterly results

Pfizer on Tuesday hiked its full-year adjusted profit guidance on its cost cuts and strong business performance this year.

The company also reported second-quarter results that topped Wall Street’s estimates for the period.

Pfizer now expects full-year adjusted profit to come in between $2.90 to $3.10, up from a previous guidance of $2.80 to $3 per share.

The company maintained its 2025 revenue forecast of $61 billion to $64 billion.

The full-year outlook includes a one-time charge of $1.35 billion, or 20 cents per share, related to the company’s licensing deal with 3SBio, a Chinese drugmaker, to develop and sell its cancer treatment outside of China. That charge will be recorded in the third quarter, Pfizer said. 

The results also come as Pfizer and other drugmakers grapple with President Donald Trump’s calls to lower drug prices in the U.S. and brace for his planned tariffs on pharmaceuticals imported into the country.

Pfizer’s outlook accounts for Trump’s currently imposed tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, as well as potential drug price changes this year based on a letter from the president last week calling on Pfizer to take steps to lower drug prices. 

Pfizer’s release on Tuesday did not provide specific costs for those factors. In April, Pfizer executives said the company’s 2025 guidance at the time included $150 million in expected costs from Trump’s existing tariffs, but not sector-specific levies.

Here’s what the company reported for the second quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG: 

• Earnings per share: 78 cents adjusted vs. 58 cents expected
• Revenue: $14.65 billion vs. $13.56 billion expected

For the second quarter, Pfizer booked net income of $2.91 billion, or 51 cents per share. That compares with net income of $41 million, or 1 cent per share, during the same period a year ago. 

Excluding certain items, including restructuring charges and costs associated with intangible assets, the company posted earnings per share of 78 cents for the quarter.

Pfizer reported revenue of $14.65 billion for the second quarter, up 10% from the same period a year ago.

The results come after Pfizer in April expanded its cost-cutting efforts, which aim to help the pharmaceutical giant recover from the rapid decline of its Covid business and stock price over the past few years. With the added cuts announced in April, Pfizer now expects to deliver around $7.7 billion in savings by the end of 2027 from two separate cost-cutting programs.