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Goldman Sachs hosted a meeting with Pfizer Inc’s (NYSE:PFE) newly appointed Chief Scientific Officer Chris Boshoff (effective January 1, 2025).

The analyst maintains the Buy rating with a price target of $33.

When discussing core capabilities at Pfizer, the commentary highlighted a strategic shift toward prioritizing efforts. The focus will be on opportunities expected to deliver the highest economic returns while maintaining a balanced portfolio of high-risk and low-risk projects.

With an annual R&D budget of about $11-12 billion—representing roughly a high-teens percentage of revenue—the company plans to allocate resources to key areas such as Oncology and reaffirmed its commitment to programs targeting obesity, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases.

Also Read: European And US Vaccine Stocks Are Under Pressure – Here’s Why

The analyst notes that Boshoff believes the anti-obesity medicine market is still in its early stages. He envisions a future in which the market is segmented based on factors like co-morbidities, different treatment mechanisms, delivery methods (Pfizer focuses on oral delivery), and combination therapies playing crucial roles.

Boshoff told the analyst that anti-obesity medicines are expected to become more integrated into primary care. He highlighted Pfizer’s strong history with widely used medications like Lipitor and Eliquis, suggesting this experience aligns with their strategic goals.

Among Pfizer’s three clinical-stage anti-obesity programs, Boshoff expressed confidence in one molecule potentially being among the first oral GLP-1/AOMs available in the U.S. market.

Goldman Sachs adds that Pfizer sees Comirnaty and Paxlovid as reliable long-term products. The company expects steady demand due to ongoing COVID-19 mutations. The company anticipates more stable vaccination rates and improved commercial stability overall.

In the third quarter, the U.S. drugmaker reported sales of $17.70 billion, up 31% year-over-year (up 32% operationally), beating the consensus of $14.95 billion.

The increase was primarily led by growth contributions from Paxlovid and several acquired products, key in-line products, and recent commercial launches.

Regarding its COVID-19 and influenza combination vaccine, Pfizer remains optimistic about its market potential and is testing new formulations to overcome challenges from earlier clinical data.

Pfizer recognizes setbacks in its immunology pipeline but remains committed and plans to focus on advancing select early-stage pipeline projects.

Price Action: PFE stock is down 0.77% at $25.62 at last check Tuesday.

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(Bloomberg) — Intel Corp.’s search for a new chief executive officer will focus heavily on outsiders, with the chipmaker considering candidates such as Marvell Technology Inc. head Matt Murphy and former Cadence Design Systems Inc. CEO Lip-Bu Tan, according to people familar with the situation.

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The company has enlisted executive search firm Spencer Stuart to help find a new chief and is evaluating candidates, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. That includes looking well beyond Intel’s walls for talent — a break with tradition.

This week’s sudden ouster of CEO Pat Gelsinger set off an urgent search for new leadership at a time when the chipmaker’s fortunes are shaky and its bench has been depleted by years of management turnover. Gelsinger took the reins just three years ago, and since then has focused on a complex, expensive effort to turn the struggling company around.

That didn’t give him time to resurrect one of Intel’s other legacies — an executive training program that once supplied leaders for the rest of the industry. For now, Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner and Executive Vice President Michelle Johnston Holthaus are serving as interim co-CEOs.

Marvell shares slipped as much as 2.3% on Tuesday after Bloomberg News reported that Murphy was under consideration. Intel fell more than 5% as of 1:09 p.m. in New York, continuing a retreat that began Monday.

All but one of the company’s leaders since its foundation in 1968 have been homegrown, and the exception, Bob Swan, was given the job as a stopgap measure when the board was forced to remove Brian Krzanich. That drama broke a run of carefully choreographed successions that contributed to the company’s five decades of stability. Krzanich’s tenure also saw the departure of a number of Intel veterans.

As the board hunts for Gelsinger’s permanent replacement, analysts say, it may be hard-pressed to choose from within, partly because the earlier exodus means there are fewer strong internal candidates. On the other hand, there’s little optimism that the company will be able to bring in an external savior who can shake things up immediately.

“It may be challenging to find a replacement with the right experience and background, with the capacity to manage a complex organization such as Intel and able to effectively deal with the multitude of headwinds,” KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst John Vinh wrote in a note Monday.

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Shares of server and storage solution specialist BigBear.ai (NYSE: BBAI) charged sharply higher on Tuesday, surging as much as 20.9%. As of 11:52 a.m. ET, the stock was still up 19.1%.

The catalyst that sent the artificial intelligence (AI) specialist higher was some bullish commentary in an international publication that compared it favorably to data mining and AI specialist Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR).

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BigBear.ai has the potential to become the next Palantir, according to The Economic Times. Since the company is much smaller and has a much lower market cap, it has the potential to be a big winner for investors, according to the report. Indeed, with a value of just $668 million, BigBear is much smaller than Palantir at $159 billion (as of this writing).

BigBear.ai has gotten a lot of attention since the advent of generative AI early last year. The company supplies decision-intelligence solutions enhanced by AI and machine learning to help business leaders make informed decisions. If that sounds a lot like what Palantir does, there are similarities.

As my colleague Dan Victor pointed out, “Both specialize in AI and machine learning cloud-based software that helps organizations analyze complex data sets to gain predictive insights.” He also cites an “ongoing strategic partnership” with Palantir that could benefit BigBear.ai.

Palantir’s Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) is gaining broad acceptance across enterprise and government customers, noted for its ability to provide a wide range of solutions to everyday business problems. For its part, BigBear.ai is still focused on smaller, more specialized solutions, limiting its current upside.

To be clear, a lot of things would have to go right for BigBear to make the jump to the big leagues. In the third quarter, the company generated revenue that increased 22% to $41.5 million, resulting in a loss per share of $0.05. Compare that to Palantir’s revenue of $726 million and earnings per share of $0.06, and the most obvious difference comes into focus.

However, at roughly 3 times forward sales, BigBear is by far the better bargain, compared to 46 times forward sales for Palantir. That said, its smaller size and lack of profits make BigBear.ai a more risky proposition, so any investment should be sized appropriately.

Before you buy stock in BigBear.ai, consider this:

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(Bloomberg) — Bank of Nova Scotia’s shares had their biggest drop in more than a year after the lender missed earnings estimates on higher-than-expected expenses and taxes.

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The Toronto-based lender, which also reported lower profits in its capital-markets business, pared some of its decline by late morning but remained the worst performer on the S&P/TSX Composite Index on Tuesday. Its shares were down 3% to C$77.40 at 11:35 a.m., and earlier fell as much as 4.9%, their biggest drop in intraday trading since November 2023.

Scotiabank earned C$1.57 per share on an adjusted basis in its fiscal fourth quarter, according to a statement Tuesday, less than the C$1.60 average estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Scotiabank’s results also included a one-time impairment charge of C$379 million ($270 million) related to its investment in Bank of Xi’an Co. in China.

It’s been almost one year since Chief Executive Officer Scott Thomson announced a new strategy, which has seen the bank prioritize investments in Canada, the US and Mexico over its Latin American operations and try to win more customers with multiple products.

“Our results demonstrate both early progress and areas where more work needs to be done,” Thomson said on a conference call with analysts. “Overall, earnings grew marginally in 2024, consistent with our expectations.”

He reiterated the bank’s guidance for between 5% and 7% earnings growth in fiscal 2025 and said he expects Scotiabank will resume dividend increases “over multiple years” as earnings grow.

Scotiabank’s non-interest expenses totaled C$5.3 billion for the three months through October, more than the C$4.85 billion average estimate of four analysts in a Bloomberg survey. The bank cited higher performance-based compensation, technology and advertising costs as well as taxes.

The firm has worked to slash costs in its international division over the past year as it looks to improve productivity in the region, which includes operations in Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia and the Caribbean. It’s also trying to rein in expenses in its domestic business.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. analyst John Aiken said in a note to clients that the share-price decline on the earnings miss was to be expected, but “as the market parses through the numbers the fact that the bulk of the disappointment centers around a higher-than-expected tax rate should garner some relief.”

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