 3.30%, this amount is ranked as the 7th in pharmaceutical companies dividend yield rank but is still higher than Johnson & Johnson’s and other competitors dividend yield.
When analyzing Pfizer stocks against its competitors and the industry it is crucial to study the amount of market capital that this company invests in the industry. Pfizer’s market capital is also ranked the second after Johnson& Johnson; this means that Pfizer is one of the biggest investors in the research and development of healthcare industry. It is vital to note that Pfizer sold its consumer healthcare business to Johnson& Johnson back in 2006 and helped create its number one competitor nowadays. However, Johnson & Johnson could be Pfizer’s competitor in consumer healthcare sector only but not in the other sectors such as biopharmaceuticals or neuroscience.
To analyze more the financial situation at Pfizer, viewing internal decision making and managerial performance across time is vital. As a big pharmaceutical company operating worldwide and serving healthcare sectors, Pfizer faced its own share of scandals and opposition. Whether corruption and bribes scandals or opposition of its drugs testing procedures, these scandals surely affected Pfizer stock market and financials at one point.
The most recent scandal that Pfizer faced was the claims that it allegedly paid millions of dollars as bribes to secure and build its business in China and Europe. Although Pfizer chose to pay its charges, its management refused to admit any guilt or any knowledge of the alleged act by its employees. The charges amounted to $60 million dollars and Pfizer paid the amount by august 2012 closing the case. The countries that were involved in the scandal are Russia, China, Serbia, Italy, Croatia, Bulgaria and Czech Republic. The management’s decision to cooperate with the investigations and pay the charges although it admits no guilt proved it’s ethical and due diligence approach to solving problems facing the company.
Another big scandal for Pfizer happened in the year 2009 when a drug called Bextra was pulled out of the markets for the complaint of misleading customers. The drug was proved by the FDA for treating Asthma but was mislabeled to mislead and defraud the public. The fines for fraud mounted for billions and a regional manager was fined a $75,000 with a two years’ probation sentence. Again, Pfizer with its subsidiary Pharmacia admitted to committing the offences but the CEO of the company did not receive any charges. By expanding the drug uses, Bextra increased sales profits for Pfizer for billions and billions of dollars; however the side effects such as heart attacks and strokes were the major problem that revealed the fraud secret to the public. Although management decision in this example was to admit the guilt of fraud and pay the fines, public view of the management of Pfizer and its ethical approaches to drug manufacturing and human being health was shaken. Many viewed the company and its management as a greedy animal spirited money making business. Perhaps, the fall in stock prices in 2009 and 2010 and the drop of sales was caused by the surfacing of this specific scandal.
In 2004, Pfizer withdrew its diabetic drug Rezulin and settled lawsuits against it with $60 million. The drug caused liver failure to numerous patients and most of them died as a result. The excuse that Pfizer made was that the drug was manufactured and developed by Warner-Lambert shortly before it was acquired by Pfizer.
Other scandals that involved Pfizer names in the early 1990’s were due to fatalities caused by the dysfunctional heart valves manufactured. Thousands of law suits piled against Pfizer made the company face a very critical situation. Pfizer chose to end the production of valves and settle the lawsuits with over $200 million compensations as a consequence. This discontinuation of product and lawsuits did not only affect Pfizer’s reputation but also financial situation. Management chose to overcome this crisis by spending more in R&D and in practicing social responsibility acts. The management decision that caused such a scandal clarified how focusing on profits alone sometimes lead to stakeholders being mistreated quite often.
Moreover, Pfizer was faced with international scandals that raised questions about its acts. For example, a case was filed against Pfizer for violating international laws and testing an antibiotic on Nigerian children without parental consent. The case went on for about nine years before Pfizer agreeing to settle it with an amount of $75 million. Scandals of management practices were associated with this case and evidence suggest that Pfizer tried to drag Nigeria’s former attorney down to get away with the case. The case ended with Pfizer having to declare an apology to the public and to the doctors without borders organization. Another international scandal of Pfizer involved its employees this time, one of its main stakeholders, as employees in its Peurto Rico branch filed a suit against it in federal court. These workers alleged that Pfizer management failed to manage their pension and retirement plans causing them and their families’ losses in millions of dollars. Lastly, a former Pfizer scientist filed a case against the company in 2010 claiming that worker safety procedures inside Pfizer lab was not practiced successfully and thus caused her to get sick with a genetically engineered virus.
Overall, Pfizer’s ratios provide confidence about the continuity and profitability of the company. An investor looking to buy Pfizer’s stocks would be confident of how rewarding the returns of his/her investment. Pfizer stock value as one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world provides a great addition to any investor portfolio, according to my analysis.
On the other hand, Pfizer management should start enhancing its company value by avoiding scandals and legal risk before other competitors take advantage. Risk management should be implemented more seriously to avoid any future fraud or defect in products resulting in lawsuits or cases against Pfizer. With the current product pipeline and research & development activities, Pfizer production options should be less risky and manufacturing choices should be approached with extreme due diligence practiced by the management. Moreover, CEO and board of directors’ goals should not be profit maximization to satisfy shareholder; the main goal or objective of Pfizer should really be what is mentioned in their mission statement “to serve healthcare and human well-being”. By following their mission statement Pfizer is ensuring to satisfy all its stakeholders including shareholders, employees and consumers. In other words, Pfizer executives are now falling into the profit maximization myth and this is my opinion is causing most of the problems and scandals it is facing. Getting out of the profit maximization myth and generalizing Pfizer goal to satisfy all of its stakeholders will definitely benefit the reputation and financials of the company.
<issue_start><issue_comment>Title: double-quote does not appear in table editor
username_0: Hi,
In text view, if values are delimited by double quotes (") they do not appear in table view.
If you add double-quotes in table editor and come back to text view, there are now 3 double-quotes.

Simple-quotes are ok.

Thank you.
Cyril
<issue_comment>username_1: @username_0 I don't understand the issue, can you please provide an example of CSV text that is not treated properly in the table editor. Thanks
<issue_comment>username_0: OK, here it is,

`
col_1,col_2
"value1",2
value1,"2"
value1,2
`
<issue_comment>username_1: Double quotes are control characters in CSV, used to enquote values containing the delimiter or new line character. The double quotes are not part of the value they enquote. A value containing double quotes must be enquoted and the double quotes must be escaped:

col_1,col_2
"””value1"””,2
value1,””"2"””
value1,2<issue_closed>#include<iostream>
#include<string>

using std::cin;
using std::cout;
using std::endl;
using std::string;

int main(){
  string str, sumStr;
  while(cin >> str){
    sumStr += str;
  }
  cout << sumStr << endl;
  return 0;
} // main

Absent economic and supply and demand pressures, the price of goods remains the same. If the only change introduced to the economy is the addition of money, the price of goods will rise. Of course the economy is dynamic–nothing ever stays the same and there are a host of pressures starting and changing every day. But when the influence of other factors is small, more money moving around more quickly will increase the price of nearly everything.
Supply and demand influence prices. Even if inflation is high, an oversupply of housing will bring home prices down. Interest rates tend to go up with inflation. Mortgage rates reflect interest rates. If mortgage rates go up too high, people won't take out home loans. Demand will decrease; home prices will fall.
Cyclical Effects
Continued and rampant inflation harms an economy. It has devastating effects on people with fixed incomes, notably seniors. It makes it difficult to compete on an international scale because the currency becomes so devalued. And so at some point, whether through the course of events borne through devaluation or aggressive action by monetary policy to reduce the currency supply, inflation ends. It cannot, and historically never has, gone on forever.
Timing
Because there are so many complex, dynamic, interactive factors influencing the economy, it isn't really possible to predict inflation. But harbingers include substantial influx of spending by the government within a short time frame and an increase in the introduction of money by the treasury. These are actions taken to counteract a contraction in spending in the private sector. Once the private sector