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Pfizer beats Q4 estimates, releases mid-stage GLP-1 trial results, and maintains guidance for full-year 2026

Pfizer reported earnings that beat Wall Street estimates, reaffirmed its full-year guidance, and released mid-stage trial results for its upcoming weight-loss drug. Still, shares slipped as the company’s full-year profit forecast came in a little light.

For the last three months of 2025, Pfizer reported:

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.66, compared to the $0.57 analysts polled by FactSet were expecting.

  • Revenue of $17.6 billion, compared to the $16.8 billion Wall Street was penciling in.

For the full year 2026, Pfizer expects:

  • Annual adjusted earnings per share to land between $2.80 and $3.00, compared to the $2.97 analysts are currently expecting.

  • Annual revenues to hit between $59.5 billion and $62.5 billion, compared to the $60.9 billion analysts have forecast.

The company also released mid-stage trial results for its monthly weight-loss shot, which it recently acquired through its purchase of Metsera. The results showed that patients lost over 12.3% of their body weight at 28 weeks.

The data is cut off at a shorter time frame than the final data available for products already on the market, which makes it difficult to compare directly. Still, it is the first sign that less frequent dosing could still produce results. Late last year, Pfizer won a bidding war against Novo Nordisk, purchasing obesity biotech Metsera for $10 billion.

The pharmaceutical giant is working to reignite growth after demand for its COVID-19 products has waned and as some of its biggest moneymakers get nearer to the end of their patents’ lives. 

Management has framed the next few years an investment and transition period, as Pfizer absorbs patent expirations while betting that recently launched, acquired, and pipeline products will drive growth later in the decade. The company "appears to be in the penalty box until it can gain some footing from a growth perspective," said David Wagner, head of equity at Aptus Capital Advisors.

“The big question is — will we see sizable returns from their M&A spend, and will they make all the right development choices over this & next year to support the longer-term return to growth?”

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Report: Boeing could unveil 500-jet order from China during Trump’s visit later this month

Shares of Boeing are up nearly 4% on Friday afternoon, following a Bloomberg report that the company could be close to finalizing a deal to sell 500 planes to China.

The deal was first reported in August and would be one of Boeing’s largest ever.

According to Bloomberg’s sources, the deal could be officially unveiled when President Trump travels to China at the end of the month. That trip could be delayed given the war in Iran. The deal, sources say, could still fall apart — similar language to when it was first reported on more than six months ago.

Boeing has been on the outside of the Chinese market, in terms of new orders, since 2019 amid escalating US-China trade tensions.

According to Bloomberg’s sources, the deal could be officially unveiled when President Trump travels to China at the end of the month. That trip could be delayed given the war in Iran. The deal, sources say, could still fall apart — similar language to when it was first reported on more than six months ago.

Boeing has been on the outside of the Chinese market, in terms of new orders, since 2019 amid escalating US-China trade tensions.

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Why software shares are withstanding the war jitters

The outbreak of the war in Iran has clearly rattled investors and created a few clear winners — mostly energy stocks — and losers — consumer staples, airlines, and, well, more or else everything else.

But there is one interesting outlier to that Manichaean market dynamic.

Software shares — often the same companies that the market was giving up for dead just a few weeks ago due to overexpectations of an AI-driven disruption — have been holding up remarkably well.

These companies, including Intuit, ServiceNow, Datadog, Snowflake, IBM, Workday, and Oracle, have actually had a pretty decent run since the war started with a combined US-Israeli attack on Iran last weekend.

A new note from RBC Capital’s Rishi Jaluria suggests this isn’t just a fluke. Looking at the performance of software stocks during periods of geopolitical stress and market volatility over the last 10 and 25 years, his team found that software shares appear fairly well insulated when these broader shocks hit. RBC wrote:

“The defensive nature of SaaS models and the mission-critical nature of many core software systems at the enterprise level (e.g., in the absence of mass layoffs that may create seat-based headwinds, geopolitical uncertainty and/or market volatility typically will not cause an enterprise CIO to consider ripping out their ERP, CRM, Cyber systems, etc.”

I briefly got Jaluria on the phone yesterday, and he explained a bit more about why he thinks investors might see software as a decent place to hide out from the current chaos.

“With everything in the Middle East, you have to think about not just oil and gas input prices but also supply chains,” he said. “With software, you’re not really thinking about that.”

In other words, there is no equivalent of a closure of the Strait of Hormuz that software investors have to worry about.

Others suggested that the near-term profitability of these giant software companies — aside from concerns about potential long-term disruption from AI — may look different in the face of the economic uncertainty that seems to be growing with the war, especially after a sell-off that has left them relatively attractively valued.

Mark Moerdler, who covers software stocks for Bernstein Research, says that while the AI worries are clearly real, software companies continue to be highly productive cash cows.

“Everyone is afraid that AI is a massive disruptor, and all these articles you read talk about AI as massive disruptor or the world is ending or whatever,” he said. “You don’t see it in the fundamental numbers of the companies I cover. They are delivering GAAP profits, free cash flow, and they’re good investment ideas.”

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