Pfizer profit up on nutrition unit sale gain : Report

Pfizer Inc.'s fourth-quarter earnings soared as the pharmaceutical giant benefited from a gain on the pending sale of its nutrition business and lower acquisition-related charges and other items
For the year, the company projected per-share earnings of $2.20 to $2.30 on revenue of $56.2 billion to $58.2 billion
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters recently expected $2.29 and $57.56 billion, respectively
Pfizer's animal-medicine business is set to go public on Friday in what would be the largest deal from a U.S. company since Facebook Inc.'s (FB) IPO last May
The animal-health business, which has been dubbed Zoetis Inc., is aiming to raise as much as $2.2 billion in its market debut
The coming IPO is part of Pfizer's plan to shed certain businesses and hone its focus on human pharmaceuticals, partially unwinding years of megamergers that made Pfizer the largest drug maker in the world by sales
Pfizer previously agreed to sell its nutrition unit to Nestle SA  for $11.85 billion in cash
Pfizer reported a profit of $6.32 billion, or 85 cents a share, up from $1.44 billion, or 19 cents a share, a year earlier
The latest period included a per-share contribution of 66 cents from the nutrition business
Excluding restructuring and acquisition-related charges and other items, adjusted earnings from continuing operations were down at 47 cents from 49 cents
Revenue decreased 6.6% to $15.07 billion
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters most recently projected earnings of 44 cents on revenue of $14.38 billion
U.S. revenue declined 9%, mostly on the loss of exclusivity of Lipitor in November 2011 and Geodon in March 2012
Biopharmaceutical segment sales declined 8.8%, offsetting animal-health sales growth of 5.9% and consumer health-care segment sales improvement of 16%