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Pfizer fourth-quarter results top forecast, gives cautious 2013 view


    (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc on Tuesday reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results, helped by rebounding sales in emerging markets, but the drugmaker forecast earnings for 2013 that was mostly below consensus analyst expectations.

    The largest U.S. drugmaker said its earnings quadrupled to $6.32 billion, or 86 cents per share, in the quarter as it recorded gains from the approximately $12 billion sale in November of its nutritional products business to Swiss food groups Nestle SA . That compared with earnings of $1.44 billion, or 19 cents per share, in the year-earlier quarter.

    Excluding special items, PFIZER (PFE.NY)earned 47 cents per share. Analysts, on average, expected 44 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

    Global company sales fell 7 percent to $15.1 billion, hurt by generic competition for its Lipitor cholesterol fighter, but came in well above Wall Street expectations of $14.37 billion.

    Pfizer forecast full-year earnings, excluding special items of $2.20 to $2.30 per share. The average analyst forecast was $2.29 per share, according to Thomson Reuters.

    (Reporting by Ransdell Pierson; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Maureen Bavdek)