Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. Raises Stock Position in Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS)

Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. raised its holdings in Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) by 25.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 6,565 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,334 shares during the period. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc.’s holdings in Zoetis were worth $1,070,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Pensionfund Sabic boosted its stake in shares of Zoetis by 55.6% in the fourth quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 11,200 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,825,000 after buying an additional 4,000 shares during the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Zoetis in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,764,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Zoetis by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,916,539 shares of the company’s stock worth $569,834,000 after purchasing an additional 279,092 shares in the last quarter. Simplify Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Zoetis during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $11,684,000. Finally, B&L Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Zoetis during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $563,000. 92.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ZTS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Leerink Partnrs raised shares of Zoetis to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Zoetis in a research report on Monday, December 9th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $196.00 price objective for the company. Leerink Partners started coverage on Zoetis in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $215.00 target price on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Zoetis from $210.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Zoetis from $225.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Zoetis has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $211.89.

Zoetis Price Performance

Shares of Zoetis stock opened at $164.31 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $74.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.89, a PEG ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $171.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $180.16. Zoetis Inc. has a 12 month low of $144.80 and a 12 month high of $200.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 3.69 and a quick ratio of 2.27.

Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $2.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.29 billion. Zoetis had a return on equity of 51.98% and a net margin of 26.55%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.36 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Zoetis Inc. will post 5.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Zoetis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 21st will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This is an increase from Zoetis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 21st. Zoetis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.59%.

About Zoetis

Zoetis Inc engages in the discovery, development, manufacture, and commercialization of animal health medicines, vaccines, and diagnostic products and services in the United States and internationally. The company commercializes products primarily across species, including livestock, such as cattle, swine, poultry, fish, and sheep and others; and companion animals comprising dogs, cats, and horses.