Pfizer profit tops estimates as it booked an $11 billion tax gain

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The Pfizer logo sits on Viagra tablets, produced by Pfizer Inc.

Pfizer beat analysts’ estimate for adjusted profit on Tuesday, helped by strong demand for its pneumonia vaccine Prevnar and breast cancer drug Ibrance, while also reporting an $11 billion gain from the new tax law.

Shares of Pfizer, which forecast full-year earnings and revenue well ahead of Street estimates, rose 1.4 percent to $39.60 premarket.

The drugmaker joins a slew of pharmaceutical companies, including Johnson & Johnson and AbbVie, which are expecting to benefit from the recent tax overhaul.

Pfizer said its net income surged to $12.27 billion, or $2.02 per share, in the fourth quarter, from $775 million, or 13 cents per share, a year earlier.

The drugmaker said it gained $11.34 billion from the new tax law, signed into law by President Donald Trump last month.

Pfizer said it would pay about $15 billion in U.S. taxes over eight years to bring back money held overseas.

Excluding the tax gain and other items, the company earned 62 cents per share, beating analysts’ estimates of 56 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose marginally to $13.70 billion, slightly ahead of estimates of $13.68 billion.

The company forecast full-year adjusted earnings per share between $2.90 and $3 on revenue of $53.5 billion and $55.5 billion.

Analysts on average were expecting a profit of $2.78 per share and revenue of $53.88 billion.