Wright Investors Service Inc. Cuts Stake in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)

Wright Investors Service Inc. decreased its position in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) by 4.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 25,232 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 1,167 shares during the period. Wright Investors Service Inc.’s holdings in Gilead Sciences were worth $2,044,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. PCA Investment Advisory Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of Gilead Sciences in the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Gilead Sciences in the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. Tompkins Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences by 223.1% in the third quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 349 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 241 shares during the last quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC bought a new position in shares of Gilead Sciences in the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Rakuten Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Gilead Sciences in the fourth quarter worth approximately $33,000. Institutional investors own 83.67% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Merdad Parsey sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.18, for a total transaction of $146,360.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 100,936 shares in the company, valued at $7,386,496.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on GILD. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Gilead Sciences from $101.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Barclays dropped their price target on Gilead Sciences from $85.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Truist Financial lowered Gilead Sciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $91.00 to $82.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Gilead Sciences from $84.00 to $77.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Gilead Sciences from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $84.71.

Gilead Sciences Stock Down 1.3 %

Gilead Sciences stock traded down $0.88 on Thursday, hitting $66.05. 2,077,541 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,243,939. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. The firm has a market cap of $82.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 0.19. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $72.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $76.66. Gilead Sciences, Inc. has a 1 year low of $65.92 and a 1 year high of $87.86.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.72 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.04). Gilead Sciences had a net margin of 20.89% and a return on equity of 38.85%. The company had revenue of $7.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.67 earnings per share. Gilead Sciences’s revenue was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Gilead Sciences, Inc. will post 6.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Gilead Sciences Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This is an increase from Gilead Sciences’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.66%. Gilead Sciences’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.44%.

Gilead Sciences Profile

Gilead Sciences, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes medicines in the areas of unmet medical need in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company provides Biktarvy, Genvoya, Descovy, Odefsey, Truvada, Complera/ Eviplera, Stribild, Sunlencs, and Atripla products for the treatment of HIV/AIDS; Veklury, an injection for intravenous use, for the treatment of COVID-19; and Epclusa, Harvoni, Vemlidy, and Viread for the treatment of viral hepatitis.