Activist investor Starboard has informed Pfizer it has taken a stake

• Starboard Value has taken a stake in Pfizer, people familiar with the matter said.
• The drug giant’s stock price has dropped significantly since its COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
• Starboard’s stake in Pfizer is reportedly worth about $1 billion.

Starboard Value has its next target: pharma giant Pfizer.

The activist investor has informed Pfizer that it has taken a significant stake in the drugmaker, people familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

Pfizer stock has fallen sharply since it reached record highs in 2021 during the rollout of its COVID-19 vaccine.

The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the Starboard stake, which it and The Financial Times valued at about $1 billion.

Under CEO Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s annual revenue soared to $100 billion during the pandemic thanks to the release of the first COVID-19 vaccine in the US and later the antiviral treatment Paxlovid.

But the revenues from those products have declined significantly over the past two years as demand waned, and the company’s attempts to buoy its share price — including cost-cutting campaigns and acquisitions — haven’t panned out.

The company’s stock reached nearly $60 a share in December 2021, but has fallen more than 50% since, and the market cap now stands at about $162 billion. Revenue in 2023 dipped to $58.5 billion.

Shares were trading 2.7% higher in premarket trading early Monday.

Starboard, which managed $8.5 billion in assets at the start of the year, has recently taken stakes in coffee chain Starbucks and Match Group, the owner of dating app Tinder.

It also has taken a stake in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. and has pushed for a breakup of the media conglomerate.