Alliancebernstein L.P. Has $651.01 Million Holdings in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)

Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its stake in shares of Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,047,846 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after purchasing an additional 50,434 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P.’s holdings in Gilead Sciences were worth $651,010,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GILD. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Gilead Sciences during the fourth quarter worth $1,789,254,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Gilead Sciences by 50.9% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 34,600,676 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,900,921,000 after acquiring an additional 11,665,593 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences by 723.3% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 6,434,665 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $594,370,000 after purchasing an additional 5,653,075 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Gilead Sciences during the fourth quarter valued at about $207,340,000. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 350.1% during the third quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,305,270 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $193,274,000 after purchasing an additional 1,793,145 shares during the last quarter. 83.67% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GILD has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Gilead Sciences from $123.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. DZ Bank raised Gilead Sciences from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $108.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Bank of America raised their target price on Gilead Sciences from $116.00 to $126.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Gilead Sciences from $115.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Gilead Sciences from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $80.00 to $120.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $105.12.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Gilead Sciences news, CFO Andrew D. Dickinson sold 17,929 shares of Gilead Sciences stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.17, for a total transaction of $2,118,669.93. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 169,061 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,977,938.37. The trade was a 9.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 302,785 shares of company stock valued at $30,503,250 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Gilead Sciences Stock Up 0.6 %

GILD opened at $111.79 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.50 and a quick ratio of 1.20. Gilead Sciences, Inc. has a one year low of $62.07 and a one year high of $119.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $139.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 302.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.21. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $105.48 and a 200-day moving average price of $95.00.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.67 by $0.23. Gilead Sciences had a return on equity of 31.63% and a net margin of 1.67%. Equities research analysts expect that Gilead Sciences, Inc. will post 7.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gilead Sciences Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.79 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Gilead Sciences’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.83%. Gilead Sciences’s payout ratio is presently 854.05%.

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.