Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) Price Target Raised to $84.00

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) had its target price hoisted by Royal Bank of Canada from $81.00 to $84.00 in a report issued on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a sector perform rating on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

GILD has been the subject of several other research reports. Evercore ISI raised Gilead Sciences to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Gilead Sciences in a research report on Friday, November 15th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $110.00 price target for the company. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on Gilead Sciences in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $105.00 price target for the company. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Gilead Sciences from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on Gilead Sciences in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price target for the company. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Gilead Sciences presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $94.00.

Gilead Sciences Price Performance

NASDAQ:GILD opened at $88.63 on Monday. Gilead Sciences has a one year low of $62.07 and a one year high of $98.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.26. The stock has a market cap of $110.46 billion, a PE ratio of 984.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.17. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $87.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $76.52.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last posted its quarterly 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. Gilead Sciences had a return on equity of 29.00% and a net margin of 0.45%. The firm had revenue of $7.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.01 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.29 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Gilead Sciences will post 4.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gilead Sciences Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Gilead Sciences’s payout ratio is currently 3,422.22%.

Insider Activity at Gilead Sciences

In other Gilead Sciences news, insider Johanna Mercier sold 29,357 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.78, for a total value of $2,459,529.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 78,127 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,545,480.06. The trade was a 27.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Merdad Parsey sold 25,590 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 owns 99,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,113,308.50. The trade was a 20.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 56,947 shares of company stock valued at $4,968,674. 0.29% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Gilead Sciences

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GILD. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Gilead Sciences in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,328,000. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in Gilead Sciences by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 12,414,268 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $851,743,000 after buying an additional 93,068 shares during the last quarter. IRON Financial LLC purchased a new position in Gilead Sciences in the 3rd quarter valued at about $830,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in Gilead Sciences by 13.1% in the 2nd quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 286,116 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $19,630,000 after buying an additional 33,162 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in Gilead Sciences by 127.6% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 213,901 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $15,668,000 after buying an additional 119,909 shares during the last quarter. 83.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.