Health Stocks in Motion

Wyeth(WYE Quote) fell 7.8% after the company posted fourth-quarter earnings and sales that fell below expectations and warned that 2005 earnings would fall below expectations as well. Excluding legal items associated with the recall of its fen-phen diet drugs, the company earned 64 cents a share on sales of $4.65 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of 67 cents a share on sales of $4.66 billion. Looking ahead, Wyeth forecast 2005 earnings of $2.70 to $2.80 a share. Analysts had been expecting earnings of $2.89 a share. Shares traded down $3.35 to $39.63.

Other health care movers included Pfizer(PFE Quote), down 19 cents to $24.16; Merck(MRK Quote), up 3 cents to $28.05; Aastrom Biosciences(ASTM Quote), up 18 cents to $3.37; StemCells(STEM Quote), up 3 cents to $4.91; Johnson & Johnson(JNJ Quote), up 8 cents to $64.70; and Schering-Plough(SGP Quote), down 31 cents to $18.56.