Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Lowers Stock Holdings in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lowered its holdings in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) by 95.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 139,606 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 2,857,063 shares during the quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership’s holdings in Gilead Sciences were worth $12,895,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 149.5% in the third quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 81,620 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $6,843,000 after purchasing an additional 48,910 shares during the period. McAdam LLC raised its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences by 16.7% in the 4th quarter. McAdam LLC now owns 25,372 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,344,000 after purchasing an additional 3,627 shares in the last quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Gilead Sciences by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 387,492 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $35,793,000 after purchasing an additional 9,791 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Gilead Sciences by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 142,167 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $13,132,000 after purchasing an additional 5,382 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Global Financial Private Client LLC increased its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences by 1,222.0% in the 4th quarter. Global Financial Private Client LLC now owns 6,068 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $561,000 after acquiring an additional 5,609 shares during the last quarter. 83.67% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Gilead Sciences Trading Down 4.6 %

Shares of GILD stock opened at $107.25 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $107.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $95.89. Gilead Sciences, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $62.07 and a fifty-two week high of $119.96. The stock has a market cap of $133.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 289.86, a P/E/G ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.32.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.23. Gilead Sciences had a return on equity of 31.63% and a net margin of 1.67%. On average, analysts forecast that Gilead Sciences, Inc. will post 7.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gilead Sciences Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.79 per share. This is a boost from Gilead Sciences’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.95%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Gilead Sciences’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 854.05%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Andrew D. Dickinson sold 142,180 shares of Gilead Sciences stock in a transaction on Friday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.22, for a total value of $13,822,739.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 129,873 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,626,253.06. The trade was a 52.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 302,785 shares of company stock valued at $30,503,250 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GILD has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Gilead Sciences from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Gilead Sciences from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Gilead Sciences from $123.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Gilead Sciences from $115.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Gilead Sciences from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $105.12.

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.