HealthInvest Partners AB Takes $8.02 Million Position in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)

HealthInvest Partners AB bought a new position in shares of Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 98,974 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,018,000. Gilead Sciences makes up about 6.3% of HealthInvest Partners AB’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its position in Gilead Sciences by 9.2% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 57,967 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $3,446,000 after acquiring an additional 4,877 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Gilead Sciences by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 448,409 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $26,660,000 after acquiring an additional 16,643 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lifted its position in Gilead Sciences by 44.3% during the 1st quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 8,642 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $514,000 after acquiring an additional 2,654 shares during the period. Donaldson Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Gilead Sciences by 12.5% during the 1st quarter. Donaldson Capital Management LLC now owns 5,763 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $343,000 after acquiring an additional 641 shares during the period. Finally, Ergoteles LLC acquired a new stake in Gilead Sciences during the 1st quarter worth about $2,304,000. 83.67% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Merdad Parsey sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.96, for a total value of $145,920.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 96,304 shares in the company, valued at $7,026,339.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on GILD shares. Mizuho lowered their price target on Gilead Sciences from $101.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on Gilead Sciences from $115.00 to $105.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 12th. Truist Financial cut Gilead Sciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $91.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Barclays decreased their price objective 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, Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price target on Gilead Sciences from $80.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $85.36.

Gilead Sciences Price Performance

NASDAQ:GILD traded down $0.44 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $67.31. 4,974,933 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,347,536. Gilead Sciences, Inc. has a 52-week low of $67.18 and a 52-week high of $87.86. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $72.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $76.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. The company has a market cap of $83.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.06, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.19.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $7.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.10 billion. Gilead Sciences had a net margin of 20.89% and a return on equity of 38.85%. Gilead Sciences’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.67 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Gilead Sciences, Inc. will post 7.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gilead Sciences Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Gilead Sciences’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.58%. Gilead Sciences’s dividend payout ratio is 68.44%.

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.