Construction at Pfizer's former headquarters in Manhattan was halted Tuesday because of crumbling floors and other structural issues.

The problems with the building's renovation, which the company sold about eight years ago for conversion to apartments, are a metaphor of sorts for Pfizer stock, which began Tuesday with the highest yield in the S&P 500 index, at more than 7%.

That status reflects just how out-of-favor the stock has become even as investors have rotated into the pharmaceuticals sector this year. Pfizer stock, which is up 1.6% to $24.10 Tuesday, has been the worst performer among its large-cap U.S. peers during 2026 and over the past 10 years. The shares are down 33% over the past decade and have a slightly positive total return given the company's ample dividend.

The former industry leader has ceded that position to Eli Lilly, which has a market value of $1.1 trillion, or about eight times that of Pfizer's, at around $135 billion.

Pfizer stock peaked at more than $60 a share during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, when the company was getting a windfall from a Covid vaccine developed in partnership with BioNTech and its Covid treatment Paxlovid. Unfortunately for shareholders, Pfizer hasn't been able to come up with post-Covid encore as rivals like Lilly have become dominant thanks to GLP-1 diet drugs.

Pfizer is bedeviled by patent expirations and the lack of a sufficiently robust pipeline to offset resulting revenue and profit losses. Pfizer's earnings are expected to decline almost 10% this year, to around $2.95 a share, and continue to drop annually through 2029, according to Bloomberg data.

Pfizer has held its dividend steady for about 18 months at 43 cents a quarter per share as it seeks to balance growth initiatives and debt reduction with capital returns to shareholders. Pfizer isn't buying back stock.

In a recent client note, Citi analyst Geoff Meacham wrote that he came away from a meeting with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla "with a clearer view of the work underway to emerge stronger in 2029 as the LOE cycle eases." LOE refers to loss of exclusivity, or patent expirations. Meacham has a Neutral rating on the stock.

In its first-quarter earnings release the company said it remains focused on "maintaining and, over the long term, growing our dividend."

Analysts generally aren't enthusiastic about Pfizer, with just a third of the 30 analysts tracked by Bloomberg rating the stock a Buy or equivalent.

But the stock is the cheapest member of the group, trading for eight times earnings, and it carries an ample, junk-bond like 7% yield. It remains the most contrarian big stock in the pharma sector.

Write to Andrew Bary at andrew.bary@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 07, 2026 15:22 ET (19:22 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.