Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) Raised to Strong-Buy at Leerink Partnrs

Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note published on Monday morning, Zacks.com reports.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Raymond James upgraded shares of Gilead Sciences from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $93.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Gilead Sciences from $82.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Gilead Sciences from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $78.00 to $100.00 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Leerink Partners upgraded shares of Gilead Sciences from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $74.00 to $96.00 in a report on Monday. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Gilead Sciences to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $86.85.

Gilead Sciences Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of GILD stock opened at $87.23 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. Gilead Sciences has a 12-month low of $62.07 and a 12-month high of $88.39. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $81.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $73.17. The company has a market capitalization of $108.68 billion, a PE ratio of 242.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.18.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $2.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.61 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $6.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.64 billion. Gilead Sciences had a return on equity of 29.34% and a net margin of 3.79%. As a group, analysts predict that Gilead Sciences will post 3.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Gilead Sciences Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were given a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.53%. Gilead Sciences’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 855.56%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Merdad Parsey sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.83, for a total value of $167,660.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 100,189 shares in the company, valued at $8,398,843.87. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Gilead Sciences news, insider Johanna Mercier sold 29,357 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.78, for a total value of $2,459,529.46. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 78,127 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,545,480.06. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Merdad Parsey sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.83, for a total transaction of $167,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 100,189 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,398,843.87. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,847 shares of company stock worth $3,033,340 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Gilead Sciences

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 114,732,575 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $8,404,161,000 after buying an additional 2,910,147 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 84,497,404 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $6,189,435,000 after acquiring an additional 1,133,281 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 61,246,366 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $4,486,296,000 after acquiring an additional 1,589,240 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 12,414,268 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $851,743,000 after acquiring an additional 93,068 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,412,413 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $714,421,000 after acquiring an additional 268,208 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.67% of the company’s stock.

Gilead Sciences Company 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.