What to Look for When Pfizer Inc. Reports Earnings

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Pfizer's  (NYSE: PFE  )  earnings call is coming up on Tuesday, January 28, just after the market opens. Losses from generic competition, an ongoing organizational overhaul, and string of recent downgrades will make this one of the most listened to calls of the season. With this much attention, there is likely to be a great deal of noise immediately following the call, but here are a a few critical points to help you focus on the essentials.

Unloading generics
Halfway through last year, Pfizer discussed the separation of its commercial operations into three distinct units. Two units for patent protected brands and one for generics. According to Reuters, Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: VRX  ) , Mylan Inc (NASDAQ: MYL  ) , andActavis (NYSE: ACT  ) , are all interested, but there's a small problem -- they probably can't afford it.

VRX Free Cash Flow (TTM) data by YCharts

Pfizer's generics operations are contained within its Established Products and Emerging Markets reporting segment. It hauled in about $14.5 billion during the first nine months of 2013. The odds of any one of the above companies raising enough cash to make an outright purchase are slim. Also, the sale of smaller pieces to interested parties would probably incur enough taxes to erode the sales' profitability.

The company could avoid the tax charges if...

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