Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) Price Target Raised to $81.00 at Royal Bank of Canada

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) had its price target lifted by Royal Bank of Canada from $75.00 to $81.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a sector perform rating on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on GILD. Leerink Partners upgraded Gilead Sciences from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $74.00 to $96.00 in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Gilead Sciences in a research report on Thursday. Leerink Partnrs upgraded Gilead Sciences from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on Gilead Sciences in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $105.00 price target for the company. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on Gilead Sciences from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Gilead Sciences currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $90.71.

Gilead Sciences Price Performance

GILD stock traded down $1.34 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $96.57. 7,456,749 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,048,514. The company has a market cap of $120.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 118.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.17. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $84.58 and its 200 day moving average is $74.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Gilead Sciences has a 12-month low of $62.07 and a 12-month high of $98.32.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.44. The company had revenue of $7.55 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.01 billion. Gilead Sciences had a return on equity of 29.34% and a net margin of 3.79%. Gilead Sciences’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.29 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Gilead Sciences will post 3.75 EPS for the current year.

Gilead Sciences Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.19%. Gilead Sciences’s payout ratio is presently 375.61%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Merdad Parsey sold 2,000 shares of Gilead Sciences stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.83, for a total value of $167,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 100,189 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,398,843.87. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Merdad Parsey sold 2,000 shares of Gilead Sciences stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.83, for a total value of $167,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 100,189 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,398,843.87. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Johanna Mercier sold 29,357 shares of Gilead Sciences stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 78,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,545,480.06. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 62,437 shares of company stock valued at $5,374,825. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 2.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 114,732,575 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $8,404,161,000 after purchasing an additional 2,910,147 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 1.4% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 84,497,404 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $6,189,435,000 after purchasing an additional 1,133,281 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 2.7% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 61,246,366 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $4,486,296,000 after purchasing an additional 1,589,240 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings 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 valued at $851,743,000 after purchasing an additional 93,068 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 2.6% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,412,413 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $714,421,000 after purchasing an additional 268,208 shares during the period. 83.67% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.