Pfizer's second quarter profit sinks 79% but tops forecasts

Pfizer's second-quarter earnings plunged 79 percent from last year, when the world's second-largest drugmaker booked a business spinoff gain of more than $10 billion, but results in the most recent quarter still edged analyst expectations, AP reported.
The New York company said Tuesday it earned $2.91 billion, or 45 cents per share, in the quarter. That compares with earnings of $14.1 billion, or $1.98 per share, last year. Adjusted earnings totaled 58 cents per share.
Analysts expected, on average, earnings of 57 cents per share, according to FactSet.
Revenue slipped 2 percent to $12.77 billion, while analysts forecast $12.47 billion, on average.
Pfizer Inc. is best known for creating medicines for the masses, including the Prevnar vaccine against pneumonia and related infections, and the now-generic cholesterol fighter Lipitor, which was once the world's best-selling drug.
Over the last three years, Pfizer has divested assets outside its core business. It sold its capsule-making operation and its nutrition business for a total of nearly $14 billion. Then it spun off its animal health business as a new company in June 2013.
That's when it divested its remaining 80 percent stake in the new company, called Zoetis Inc., receiving an after-tax gain of $10.6 billio