Citigroup Upgrades Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) to Strong-Buy

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) was upgraded by analysts at Citigroup to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Gilead Sciences from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Gilead Sciences from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Gilead Sciences to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Leerink Partners raised shares of Gilead Sciences from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $74.00 to $96.00 in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Gilead Sciences from $74.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $93.10.

Gilead Sciences Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GILD opened at $92.11 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $86.22 and a 200 day moving average of $75.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $114.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 1,023.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.17. Gilead Sciences has a 12-month low of $62.07 and a 12-month high of $98.90.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.44. The business had revenue of $7.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.01 billion. Gilead Sciences had a net margin of 0.45% and a return on equity of 29.00%. The company’s revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.29 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Gilead Sciences will post 4.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Gilead Sciences

In other news, insider Merdad Parsey sold 25,590 shares of the company’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 transaction of $2,341,485.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 99,599 shares in the company, valued at $9,113,308.50. This represents a 20.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Johanna Mercier sold 29,357 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider now owns 78,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,545,480.06. This trade represents a 27.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 56,947 shares of company stock valued at $4,968,674 over the last three months. 0.16% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Gilead Sciences in the second quarter worth $25,328,000. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in Gilead Sciences by 0.8% in the second 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 in the last quarter. IRON Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Gilead Sciences in the third quarter valued at $830,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its position in shares of Gilead Sciences by 13.1% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in shares of Gilead Sciences by 127.6% in the first 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 in 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.