Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) Receives Sector Perform Rating from Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed their sector perform rating on shares of Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a $74.00 price target on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on GILD. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Gilead Sciences from $81.00 to $75.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Gilead Sciences from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Gilead Sciences from $84.00 to $77.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 4th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Gilead Sciences from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Saturday, April 27th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an outperform rating and set a $105.00 price target on shares of Gilead Sciences in a report on Friday, April 19th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $83.47.

Gilead Sciences Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:GILD opened at $68.64 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $65.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $85.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 190.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.31, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.94. Gilead Sciences has a 1 year low of $62.07 and a 1 year high of $87.86.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.32) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.49) by $0.17. The business had revenue of $6.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.36 billion. Gilead Sciences had a net margin of 1.76% and a return on equity of 24.34%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.37 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Gilead Sciences will post 3.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gilead Sciences Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th were issued a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.49%. Gilead Sciences’s dividend payout ratio is currently 855.56%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Merdad Parsey sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.63, for a total transaction of $137,260.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 96,380 shares in the company, valued at $6,614,559.40. The sale 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.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Gilead Sciences

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 114,732,575 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $8,404,161,000 after acquiring an additional 2,910,147 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 84,497,404 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $6,189,435,000 after acquiring an additional 1,133,281 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 61,246,366 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $4,486,296,000 after acquiring an additional 1,589,240 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences by 14.4% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 18,630,134 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,509,227,000 after acquiring an additional 2,350,550 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,909,619 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,267,207,000 after acquiring an additional 158,794 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.67% of the company’s stock.

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.