Pfizer Edges Past Estimates

Updated from 11:21 a.m. EST

Pfizer(PFE Quote) said Monday that fourth-quarter and full-year earnings narrowly beat Wall Street estimates.

Jeffrey Kindler, the chairman and CEO, said that although Pfizer achieved "nearly all of our financial targets" last year, "we continue to face a difficult operating environment" due to generic competition and "the risks inherent in drug development."

The latter comment referred to the December announcement that Pfizer was halting work on a cholesterol drug that the company and analysts had expected to be a successor to Lipitor, the world's best-selling drug. ...