How to Buy Pfizer Shares Online in the UK

With a market capitalization of $213.662B, Pfizer is the second-largest biotechnology and pharmaceutical company in the world. The US Healthcare company also ranks no 64 on the 2020 Fortune 500 list of the largest US corporations by total revenue, which is why many investors find Pfizer shares so appealing.

If you’re considering adding Pfizer to your share portfolio, this guide will cover everything you need to know. We show you how to buy Pfizer shares online in the UK, suggest top UK stock brokers and provide a step-by-step walkthrough of how you can buy Pfizer shares.

Step 1: Find a UK Stock Broker That Offers Pfizer Shares

As Pfizer is one of the largest corporations globally in terms of market capitalization and revenues, it will come as no surprise to learn that plenty of UK brokers allow you to buy its shares. Essentially, Pfizer is listed on four stock exchanges: the New York Stock Exchange, the London Stock Exchange, Paris Euronext, and the Swiss Exchange. However, the company’s main listing is on NYSE, meaning you need to find an online share dealing platform that gives you access to the NYSE exchange.

But you also need to ensure that your chosen broker is regulated in the UK and that it offers low trading fees, and unique trading platforms and features. To help you find the right one, let’s take a look at two of the most trusted and well-regulated UK stock brokers that allow you to buy Pfizer shares.

1. eToro – Buy Pfizer Shares with No Commission

eToro is one of the most trusted UK stock brokers, with trading on more than 800 shares of companies. On this platform, you can choose to buy shares in the traditional way, or you can buy and sell shares through contracts for difference (CFDs), meaning you can leverage your positions and go short without having to deal with high margin requirements. eToro is also a full-fledged social trading platform where you can interact with other traders and copy their trading activity.

One of the most notable aspects of eToro share trading platform is that it’s commission-free. Unlike most traditional brokerage firms that charge a fixed fee of £3-£8, on this platform you don’t pay any trading fees except the buy and sell spread. Besides that, the only financing fees that you need to take into account is a 0.5% currency conversion fee when you make a deposit, and a $5 withdrawal fee.

If you’re a UK investor, the minimum deposit starts at around £160. To deposit funds, you can use a credit/debit card, bank transfer, or e-wallets such as PayPal, Skrill, or Neteller. Bear in mind that you can also buy and sell fractional shares on eToro’s platform, meaning you don’t have to buy a single share of a company. Instead, you can buy shares from just $50 (about £40) when you have a share dealing account with eToro.

eToro is also heavily regulated in the United Kingdom and worldwide. It holds licenses from the FCA, ASIC, and CySEC. Moreover, it is a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which means that your funds would be protected up to the first £85,000 in case the broker becomes insolvent.

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2. Plus500 – Share CFD Platform with Low Fees

Plus500 is another well-known CFD brokerage firm that allows you trade on thousands of shares including Pfizer. Much like eToro, this broker enables you to buy and sell shares with leverage of up to 5:1 so you can take a large position when buying shares of a company with relatively little money in your account.

Plus500 is 100% commission free for share CFD trading, meaning you don’t have to pay a fixed commission when you buy and sell shares. In addition, the spreads on Plus500’s platform are very low, so it is one of the most cost-effective stock brokers in the UK. On this platform, you will find some of the best shares to buy of companies listed in the US, the UK, and Germany.

This broker also offers one of the most popular and user-friendly stock trading platforms. It includes price alerts, risk management tools, an economic calendar, and a built-in charting package. For the on the go traders, Plus500 allows using guaranteed stop and trailing stop orders that can be added to your trades in order to efficiently manage your risk.

In terms of regulation and safety of your funds, you should not have any concerns when trading at Plus500 as it is regulated by the FCA. To get started, you’ll have to meet the minimum deposit requirements of £100. You can do this with a debit card, credit card, electronic wallet (PayPal or Skrill) or UK bank account.

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72% of retail investors lose money trading CFDs with this provider

Step 2: Research Pfizer Shares

Even though Pfizer is one of the largest companies in the world and is considered as a blue-chip company, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the best investment right now. As such, we would suggest that you do some research about Pfizer’s share price performance, the company’s history, and forecast for the future.

Pfizer Share Price History

Pfizer was founded in 1849 in New York City by Charles Pfizer and his cousin Charles F. Erhart. At the beginning, the two men have used a loan from Pfizer’s father as capital in order to produce a palatable anti-parasitic drug called Santonin, which was a huge success. The demand for disinfectants, preservatives, and painkillers throughout the American Civil War doubled the company’s revenue, and again, during WW2 Pfizer was the only company that had the ability to develop and market mass production of penicillin for treatment of wounded soldiers and citizens.

Pfizer continued to expand during the following decades. In 1955, the company signed a major partnership with the Japanese company Taito to produce and distribute antibiotics. In the 70’s, Pfizer continued with several acquisitions such as the pharmaceutical manufacturer Mack Illertissen. Nowadays, some of the most well-known drugs of Pfizer include Advil, Bextra, Celebrex, Diflucan, Lyrica, Robitussin, and Viagra.

Pfizer first went public in 1942, and since then, its shares have grown at an annualized rate of 14.4%. It also joined the Dow Jones index in 2004, and during this period of time, the Pfizer share price has underperformed the index.

The same as any other major blue-chip company, Pfizer’s share price has been trading in a range over the past three decades. This can be attributed to the fact that the company pays a solid dividend, and saw steady and moderate growth in its healthcare sector.

Pfizer has been in the news lately due to its prospective COVID-19 vaccine candidate. But even though Pfizer is one of the leading pharma firms to manufacture a COVID-19 antiviral treatment, its YTD return is a negative -0.59% at the moment. Ultimately, Pfizer is a company that offers several layers of valuations and is a defensive stock that is typically resilient to economic recessions.

Pfizer Dividend Information

Pfizer is a favorite dividend-paying stock among investors looking for a yield on their savings. This company pays an annual dividend of $1.52 per share, with a dividend yield of 4.02%. In this sense, Pfizer pays a similar quarterly dividend when compared to other healthcare companies that pay an average dividend of $0.38 every quarter. Nevertheless, this is much higher than 2% you can expect from the average of the companies listed on the S&P 500.

Should I Buy Pfizer Shares?

Currently, there are plenty of reasons why Pfizer is in a good position in terms of growth. On top of that, as Pfizer is one the world’s largest drug company, it is not a surprise that this huge company joins the efforts to develop a Covid-19 vaccine. As such, most analysts have been overly optimistic about Pfizer’s share price future lately.

With this in mind, below you will find reasons why investors and analysts are bullish on Pfizer shares.

The Pfizer Share Price is Fairly Cheap

According to the market consensus, it appears that Pfizer share is currently undervalued, particularly when taking into consideration Pfizer’s growing pipeline and the efforts to develop the Covid-19 vaccine. At the time of writing, Pfizer is trading at $38.06 per share and its price-earnings ratio is 15.08. As the Healthcare Services average PE ratio stands at around 25.50 as of August 10, 2020, it seems that Pfizer share is currently trading at a discount.

One notable aspect about Pfizer is that it has a lot of cash – over the past year, Pfizer’s profitable operations generated $12.6 billion in free cash flow. This will enable the company to continue its expansion and maintain its position as the world’s leading biopharma producer.

Resilient Earnings and Growth Potential

In August, Pfizer reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings and upgraded its outlook for the second half of 2020. The pharmaceutical company came out with quarterly earnings of $0.78 per share, beating analysts consensus. In fact, over the last four quarters, Pfizer has surpassed EPS estimates three times. On top of that, Pfizer reported a profit of $9.52 billion and revenues of $11.8 billion.

This has revealed the company’s business resiliency during challenging times. Pfizer upgraded its full-year outlook, with EPS expectations in between $2.85 to $2.95, up from its previous guidance of $2.82 to $2.92. It also raised its income expectations to $48.6 billion to $50.6 billion for 2020, up from its previous forecast of $48.5 billion to $50.5 billion.

Partnership with Gilead, BioNTech and Direct Relief to Battle Against Covid-19

In March 2020, Pfizer launched a plan to collaborate with large and small pharmaceutical companies in order to work together in developing and marketing a COVID-19 vaccine.

Pfizer and BioNTech have entered into a global partnership agreement to develop a coronavirus vaccine to prevent COVID-19 infection. And while Pfizer and BioNTech are among several companies that have joined the race to develop a vaccine to fight the virus, this collaboration might be successful. This joint operation ensures that the U.S. government will pay both companies $1.95 billion upon the receipt of the first 100 million doses, following FDA approval of the vaccine.

Then, Pfizer announced a multi-year agreement with Gilead Sciences to manufacture and supply Gilead’s coronavirus treatment remdesivir. As of August 2020, Gilead is one of the leading candidates for treating patients with Covid-19.

Pfizer also partners with Direct Relief, a humanitarian aid organization, in order to provide Covid-19 supplies to hospitals across all 50 United States and 80 countries.

Check out our Pfizer share price forecast to learn more about whether or not this stock is a buy..

Step 3: Open an Account and Deposit Funds

So now that we have covered the pros and cons of Pfizer shares, you are ready to take the next step. As such, we are now going to walk you through the process of opening an online trading account and buying Pfizer shares. While there are many online stock brokers that allow you to buy shares of Pfizer, we have decided to show you how to buy shares with eToro.

To get started, visit eToro’s homepage and register for a trading account by clicking on the ‘Join Now’ button at the center of the screen. You will immediately be taken to a registration form where you need to provide a few personal details, including your full name, email address, contact information, and then create a password.

As mentioned before, eToro is regulated by the FCA which means you will be required to verify your identity. In order to that, you will need to upload a copy of your driver’s license or passport and a utility bill or bank account statement that shows your address.

Once your account has been approved, you can add funds to your trading account. you will need to deposit a minimum of $200 (about £160).

As to depositing funds, eToro accepts the following options:

• Debit Card
• Credit Card
• Paypal
• Skrill
• Neteller
• UK Bank Transfer

Step 4: Buy Pfizer Shares

Once your account at eToro has been approved and funded, you can then buy Pfizer shares. The process of buying shares via eToro is very straightforward and easy to follow. All you need to do is to log in to the trading dashboard and enter Pfizer or PFE at the search box and then click on the result that pops up.

On the Pfizer share page, click ‘Trade’ to open an order form.

To complete your buying process, you need to enter the amount that you wish to invest in stocks of Pfizer. It’s also recommended to set a stop loss order to try to minimize great losses. Finally, click on the ‘Open Trade’ button to send the order to the market.

Note: If you are buying Pfizer shares outside of standard market hours (9.30 am to 5 pm, Eastern Standard Time), you will need to click on ‘Set Order’. Your Pfizer shares purchase will then be completed when the markets open.

Pfizer Shares Buy or Sell?

Those that prefer high volatility shares will find better solutions when trading shares such as Apple, Amazon, and Netflix. But if you are looking for a long-term investment option, Pfizer may be the safest option for you. Long-term investors could not only benefit from the share price appreciation but also from dividend payments.

Pfizer has shown extremely strong performance in recent years and its financial stability is impressive. Further, Pfizer EPS has grown by 23% per year over three years, and the average annual share price increased by 4.8%. This essentially means that the share price has grown modestly compared to the company’s EPS.

Pfizer management is optimistic about the second half of 2020 as COVID-19 restrictions are less severe now. If the company succeeds in developing a functional Covid-19 vaccine, the share will get a strong boost. Otherwise, Pfizer is a solid dividend share to buy and hold.

The Verdict

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear that healthcare companies have the potential to bring treatment to this disease. Pfizer is a blue-chip biopharma company with a huge potential to develop a coronavirus vaccine, alongside its operational activities. As a pharmaceutical giant with high profitability, there’s a good chance Pfizer shares will provide a great return in the form of share price increase or dividend distribution.

On top of that, as it will be a smart decision to avoid shares that depend entirely on success from developing Covid-19 vaccine, Pfizer is an ideal share to buy under the circumstance of the coronavirus pandemic.

Simply click the link below to get started!

eToro – Buy Pfizer Shares With No Commission

67% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

Other Vaccine Shares

Interested in investing in other pharmaceutical companies that are involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine? Check out the list below.

• AstraZeneca
• Avacta
• GlaxoSmithKline
• Inovio
• Johnson & Johnson
• Moderna
• Oxford BioMedica
• Heat Biologics

FAQs