Is Pfizer stock heading to $36? 1 Wall Street analyst thinks so.

He was a rock star during the coronavirus pandemic, but Pfizer (PFE 2.73%) hasn’t been the most exciting company in 2024. Its stock has become something of a value play, at least according to an analyst who released a new research note based on meetings with the company’s management. He feels the stock has upside potential that is comfortably in the double-digit percentages. Here’s why.

An enthusiastic bull

BMO Capital’s Evan David Seigerman recently reiterated his Outperform (i.e. Buy) recommendation on Pfizer. He also maintained his price target of $36 per share for the well-known healthcare stock, which anticipates a gain of nearly 20% over the next 12 months. The meetings that led to the recommendation came in the form of non-deal roadshows hosted by BMO, which included private conferences between company managers and institutional investors.

Of these, Seigerman wrote, “I walked away from the meetings with a sense of motivated self-awareness,” from Pfizer. He believes that the company has a rational strategy to somewhat regain its feet after the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Comirnaty (co-developed with German colleagues). BioNTech) was a vaccine used to combat the disease.

Solid potential

Seigerman’s takeaway from these meetings is that Pfizer will focus on developing pipeline drugs in segments such as oncology and weight loss and raise the importance of profit and loss management, among other measures.

Could such efforts reap rewards in the very near future? Collectively, analysts who follow the stock seem to think so. On average, it models nearly 5% revenue growth for the full year 2024 to over $61 billion. Profitability should see a more dramatic improvement, with an estimated 43% year-over-year jump to $2.63 per share.

I feel that the weakness in Pfizer’s stock price stems from investors expecting another Comirnaty and being impatient that the company hasn’t developed a world-beating new product lately. However, its pipeline looks crowded, and there are more than a few drugs that could make quite an impact if and when they come to market. I would agree with Seigerman that this stock is undervalued and more than worth buying.