Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) Shares Sold by Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc.

Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc. lowered its holdings in Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) by 4.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,890 shares of the company’s stock after selling 131 shares during the quarter. Cherry Creek Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Zoetis were worth $471,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Pensionfund Sabic increased its stake in Zoetis by 55.6% in the fourth quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 11,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,825,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Zoetis in the 4th quarter valued at $1,764,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Zoetis by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,916,539 shares of the company’s stock valued at $569,834,000 after buying an additional 279,092 shares during the last quarter. Simplify Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Zoetis during the 3rd quarter worth $11,684,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in Zoetis by 38.3% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,065,514 shares of the company’s stock valued at $336,266,000 after acquiring an additional 572,511 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on ZTS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Zoetis from $225.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. UBS Group began coverage on Zoetis in a research report on Monday, December 9th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $196.00 price target on the stock. Leerink Partners began coverage on Zoetis in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $215.00 price objective for the company. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Zoetis from $210.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Zoetis to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $211.89.

Zoetis Stock Up 2.6 %

ZTS stock opened at $173.07 on Tuesday. Zoetis Inc. has a one year low of $144.80 and a one year high of $200.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 2.27 and a current ratio of 3.69. The company has a fifty day moving average of $170.10 and a 200-day moving average of $179.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $78.08 billion, a PE ratio of 32.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.89.

Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $2.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.36 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Zoetis Inc. will post 5.9 EPS for the current year.

Zoetis Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Investors 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 yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, January 21st. Zoetis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.59%.

Zoetis Profile

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.