Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. Raises Stake in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)

Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. lifted its position in shares of Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) by 4.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,173 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 180 shares during the quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc.’s holdings in Gilead Sciences were worth $338,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GILD. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences by 0.9% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,909,619 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,267,207,000 after purchasing an additional 158,794 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Gilead Sciences by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 14,922,488 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,118,291,000 after buying an additional 504,475 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 10.8% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 5,046,652 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $408,829,000 after buying an additional 493,920 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Gilead Sciences by 12.5% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,773,688 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $357,740,000 after acquiring an additional 531,314 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Gilead Sciences by 179.0% in the third quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 4,543,985 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $340,526,000 after acquiring an additional 2,915,141 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.67% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Merdad Parsey sold 2,000 shares of Gilead Sciences stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.96, for a total value of $145,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 96,304 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,026,339.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Gilead Sciences Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of GILD stock traded down $0.05 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $66.98. 3,576,879 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,250,059. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.43. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $71.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $76.46. The company has a market capitalization of $83.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.89, a P/E/G ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 0.19. Gilead Sciences, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $65.90 and a fifty-two week high of $87.86.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last released its 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). The company had revenue of $7.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.10 billion. Gilead Sciences had a return on equity of 38.85% and a net margin of 20.89%. Gilead Sciences’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.67 EPS. Research analysts predict that Gilead Sciences, Inc. will post 6.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Gilead Sciences Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.60%. This is an increase from Gilead Sciences’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Gilead Sciences’s payout ratio is 68.44%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial downgraded shares of Gilead Sciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $91.00 to $82.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Gilead Sciences from $84.00 to $77.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 4th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Gilead Sciences from $76.00 to $75.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Barclays decreased their target price on Gilead Sciences from $85.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Gilead Sciences from $81.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $84.57.

About Gilead Sciences

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.