Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) Upgraded by Citigroup to “Strong-Buy” Rating

Citigroup upgraded shares of Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Gilead Sciences from $83.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Barclays upped their price objective on Gilead Sciences from $84.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Leerink Partners upgraded Gilead Sciences from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $74.00 to $96.00 in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Gilead Sciences from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Gilead Sciences from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $93.86.

Gilead Sciences Stock Down 2.7 %

NASDAQ GILD traded down $2.47 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $89.64. The stock had a trading volume of 3,844,468 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,068,160. The company has a market capitalization of $111.72 billion, a PE ratio of 1,007.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.17. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $86.49 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $75.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.26. Gilead Sciences has a 12 month low of $62.07 and a 12 month high of $98.90.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $2.02 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.58 by $0.44. The firm had revenue of $7.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.01 billion. Gilead Sciences had a return on equity of 29.00% and a net margin of 0.45%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.29 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Gilead Sciences will post 4.39 EPS for the current year.

Gilead Sciences Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.44%. Gilead Sciences’s dividend payout ratio is presently 3,422.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Gilead Sciences

In other news, insider Johanna Mercier sold 29,357 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.78, for a total transaction of $2,459,529.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 78,127 shares in the company, valued at $6,545,480.06. This trade represents a 27.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Merdad Parsey sold 25,590 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.50, for a total value of $2,341,485.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 99,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,113,308.50. This represents a 20.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 56,947 shares of company stock worth $4,968,674. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Gilead Sciences

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GILD. FMR LLC grew its stake in Gilead Sciences by 79.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 33,162,319 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,780,329,000 after purchasing an additional 14,680,161 shares during the period. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Gilead Sciences in the first quarter valued at approximately $134,489,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Gilead Sciences by 8,238.4% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,642,504 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $137,708,000 after acquiring an additional 1,622,806 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in Gilead Sciences by 2.7% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 61,246,366 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $4,486,296,000 after acquiring an additional 1,589,240 shares during the period. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Gilead Sciences by 24.7% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 7,889,663 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $541,310,000 after acquiring an additional 1,564,792 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.67% of the company’s stock.

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.