Pfizer Stock (PFE): After the COVID Boom, What Pays the Dividend

Michael Whitman · Trading since 2017, full-time since 2020 · YouTube creator, 137K subscribers · Published 2026-11-07 · Updated 2026-11-08

Pfizer stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker PFE. For two years it was the company that sold the most widely used COVID vaccine, and its revenue doubled; then those sales fell away and the share price more than halved. What is left is a drugmaker with a high dividend yield, earnings that no longer cover that dividend, and a large debt from buying the cancer-drug maker Seagen.

Quote pages show a yield near 6%, a P/E in the 40s next to a forward P/E near 10, and a Hold rating. They do not show how much of the revenue was COVID, what actually pays the dividend, or what the Seagen deal did to the balance sheet. We rebuilt those from Pfizer’s 10-K and 10-Q filings and 8-Ks, with the price and dividend record from Yahoo Finance.

PFE at a glance: the price after the ex-dividend drop

November 6, 2026 was the ex-dividend date for the $0.43 payment, so that day’s close of $29.39 is already net of it. The close the day before was $29.88. Earnings and revenue are the four quarters to September 27, 2026, from the 10-Q filed November 3.

In 2026 to November 6 the price rose 18.0%, or 25.9% with dividends, against 7.8% for the S&P 500. Over the last 252 sessions it ranged from $23.67 (June 25, 2026) to $30.79 (November 4, 2026).

How it works at Pfizer: products, not segments

Almost all of Pfizer’s revenue is reported in one Biopharma segment, so the useful split is by product. The filings break out each major medicine; we grouped them into the two COVID products and everything else, which includes the Prevnar vaccines, Eliquis, the Seagen cancer drugs and the rest of the portfolio.

Pfizer is also cutting costs. Its October 13, 2023 8-K launched a program to save “at least $3.5 billion”. The 10-Q for the September 2026 quarter puts expected net savings at about $5.7 billion through 2026, $5.1 billion of it achieved through 2025, and about $6.7 billion through 2029. A separate manufacturing phase announced that quarter targets about $1.5 billion more from 2027 through 2029, at a one-time cost of about $4.0 billion.

Pfizer after the COVID peak: from $56.7 billion to $4.4 billion

Totals are as later restated: 2019 and 2020 exclude the Upjohn business, which Pfizer spun off and combined with Mylan on November 16, 2020 (2019 was first reported at $51.75 billion). The 2024 10-K raised 2022 revenue to $101.18 billion from the $100.33 billion first reported, and 2023 to $59.55 billion from $58.50 billion.

• Paxlovid’s 2023 figure is small for a reason. The 2023 10-K records a $3.5 billion non-cash revenue reversal in the fourth quarter for an expected return of about 6.5 million treatment courses of US government stock. The 2024 figure is lifted by a $771 million favorable adjustment to that reversal and a $442 million US stockpile purchase, per the 2025 10-K.
• The rest of the business grew. Revenue outside the two COVID products rose 44.7% from 2019 to the last four quarters, and 25.7% from 2022 to 2025, helped by the Seagen drugs from 2024.
• The latest quarter: in the three months to September 27, 2026, Comirnaty sold $808 million, against $1.151 billion a year earlier, and Paxlovid $449 million, against $1.225 billion, out of $16.58 billion of revenue.

The original data: COVID revenue and dividend cover, 2019 to 2026

We took total revenue and the Comirnaty and Paxlovid lines from the XBRL data in every Pfizer 10-K since 2021 and the latest 10-Q. The last-four-quarters column is nine months of 2026 plus 2025 minus nine months of 2025.

Next we set the dividends Pfizer paid each year beside its net income and its free cash flow, which is cash from operations minus capital spending. A ratio above 100% means the dividend took more than that year’s profit or cash. The same filings give all three lines, so the comparison is like for like. Our payout ratio and free cash flow pages explain both measures. Each bar pair below is one year’s dividend against one year’s cash.

• In the boom years, 2021 and 2022, the dividend took about a third of the cash. Since 2023 it has taken most of it, and in 2023 and 2025 more than all of it.
• 2020, left out of the table to keep it short, was $8.44 billion paid on $9.16 billion of net income (92.1%) and $12.18 billion of free cash flow (69.3%).

Download the data: COVID revenue and dividend cover and earnings-day moves. Free to reuse with a credit and a link back, under the site license.

A worked example: why the P/E reads 42 next to a 5.85% yield

1. Trailing earnings. Diluted EPS was $0.99 for the nine months to September 27, 2026, $1.36 for 2025 and $1.65 for the nine months to September 28, 2025. Four quarters = $0.99 + $1.36 − $1.65 = $0.70.
2. P/E. $29.39 ÷ $0.70 = 42.0. The June 2026 quarter alone had a loss of $0.04 a share, which drags the trailing figure down; the P/E ratio page explains why one weak quarter can swing it.
3. Yield. Four payments of $0.43 = $1.72; $1.72 ÷ $29.39 = 5.85%. See dividend yield.
4. Ex-dividend day. The close fell from $29.88 to $29.39, a 1.64% drop. $0.43 of that $0.49 is the dividend leaving the share price; with it added back, the move was about −0.2%.
5. Market value. $29.39 × 5,699,853,733 = $167.52 billion. Equity attributable to Pfizer was $89.00 billion, so price-to-book is 1.88.

Seagen and the debt it brought

Pfizer agreed on March 12, 2023 to buy Seagen for $229 a share in cash, and the merger took effect on December 14, 2023, per its 8-K/A. The 2023 10-K puts the consideration at $44.2 billion, or $43.4 billion net of cash acquired.

• Debt: $35.83 billion at December 31, 2022; $71.89 billion at December 31, 2023; $64.35 billion at the end of 2024; $64.80 billion at the end of 2025; $62.67 billion at September 27, 2026.
• Share price since: from the December 13, 2023 close of $26.66 to November 6, 2026, PFE rose 10.2%, or 33.8% with dividends, while the S&P 500 rose 56.7%.

The dividend record: 15 raises, then a pause in 2026

Pfizer pays quarterly. Its filings show $0.32 a share in the first quarter of 2009 and $0.16 in the second, then $0.18 through 2010. Using the first dividend of each calendar year (by record date) from Yahoo’s dividend record, the amount rose every year from 2011 to 2025: 15 raises in a row. The first 2026 dividend, declared on December 12, 2025 and paid on March 6, 2026, was $0.43, the same as a year earlier. All four 2026 dividends were declared at $0.43; the last is payable on December 7, 2026 to holders of record on November 6.

Because of the 2009 cut, Pfizer is not in the group covered on our dividend aristocrats page, which requires at least 25 straight years of increases.

Pfizer’s results mornings: 32 releases, three 5% moves

Pfizer files results before the open, between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. Eastern in every case since 2019. We kept the 32 quarterly results 8-Ks from January 2019 to November 2026 and left out three other Item 2.02 filings: an April 2022 note on its non-GAAP definition, the October 13, 2023 guidance update and the December 14, 2023 guidance for 2024.

• The median move that day was 2.22%, against 0.86% on the other 1,924 sessions since January 29, 2019.
• 3 of the 32 moved 5% or more, against 1.3% of other sessions.
• Direction: 17 were up, against a 48.4% up-rate on other days (two-sided binomial p = 0.60), so there is no sign of a lean either way in this small sample.
• The largest were +6.09% on May 1, 2024 and −5.03% on January 28, 2020. The latest, on November 3, 2026, was −2.18%.

When it fails: where Pfizer’s numbers are stretched

The price already halved once. From a record close of $61.25 on December 16, 2021, the price fell to $21.59 on April 10, 2025, a 64.8% drop. The stock lost 43.8% in 2023 alone. Prices before November 2020 are adjusted by Yahoo for the Upjohn spin-off. Our drawdown page covers how to read a fall of that size.

Part of the 5.85% is the price drop. The yield is this high partly because the price is 52.0% below its December 2021 record. Over that span the total return with dividends was −37.1%, while the S&P 500 rose 58.0%.

Earnings do not cover the payout. Over the last four quarters the dividend was 243% of net income. Free cash flow covered it, at 83%, but in 2025 it did not (108%), and debt is still above $60 billion.

Cost savings are targets. The $6.7 billion through 2029 is the company’s expectation in its 10-Q, not money already saved, and the manufacturing phase comes with about $4.0 billion of one-time costs.

Questions people ask

What is Pfizer’s dividend?

$0.43 a share each quarter, $1.72 a year, a 5.85% yield at the November 6, 2026 close of $29.39. The most recent ex-dividend date was November 6, 2026, for the payment due December 7.

Is Pfizer a dividend aristocrat?

No. It halved its quarterly dividend to $0.16 in 2009 and has raised it 15 times since, from 2011 to 2025, so its run is shorter than the 25 years the list requires.

How much of Pfizer’s revenue is COVID?

$4.4 billion over the four quarters to September 27, 2026, or 7.0% of $63.62 billion. In 2022 it was $56.7 billion, 56.1%.

What is Pfizer’s market cap?

$167.52 billion at $29.39 a share, using the 5,699,853,733 shares on the 10-Q cover dated October 28, 2026. Our market cap page explains the measure.

What did Pfizer pay for Seagen?

$229 a share in cash; the 2023 10-K values the total at $44.2 billion. The deal closed on December 14, 2023.

Related

Pfizer’s record sits between the steady raisers in dividend growth investing and a company that cut. For a drugmaker with a much longer raise record, see Johnson & Johnson stock. If you are weighing a single high-yield stock against a spread of holdings, our long-term investing page covers the case for patience and diversification.

This page is educational, not financial advice. Test every idea on your own charts before risking money.