Pfizer Earnings Rise as Sales Fall 3%

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Pfizer(PFE Quote) Tuesday reported third-quarter earnings of $2.88 billion, or 43 cents a share, up from a year-ago profit of $2.28 billion, or 34 cents a share.

On an adjusted basis, excluding certain accounting adjustments, acquisition-related costs, and discontinued operations, the New York-based drug giant earned $3.46 billion, or 51 cents a share, in the latest three months.

Revenue fell 3% year-over-year to $11.82 billion from $11.97 billion.

The average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters was for a profit of 48 cents a share in the September period on revenue of $11.4 billion.

Pfizer, which completed its acquisition of Wyeth last week, also updated its outlook to reflect the impact of the deal. The component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average now sees adjusted earnings of $2 to $2.05 a share for fiscal 2009, up from a prior view of $1.90 to $2 a share. On a reported basis, the company now sees earnings of $1.45 to $1.50 a share for the year on revenue of between $49 billion to $50 billion. Pfizer's previous outlook was for earnings of $1.30 to $1.45 a share on revenue of $45 billion to $46 billion for the year.

-- Reported by Michael Baron in New York .

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