Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) Short Interest Update

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 21,180,000 shares, a decline of 6.2% from the March 31st total of 22,570,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 7,220,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.9 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on GILD shares. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their price target on Gilead Sciences from $80.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. UBS Group decreased their price target on Gilead Sciences from $81.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Gilead Sciences from $80.00 to $78.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Gilead Sciences from $76.00 to $74.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Gilead Sciences from $101.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Gilead Sciences has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $83.60.

Insider Activity at Gilead Sciences

In other Gilead Sciences news, insider Merdad Parsey sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.96, for a total transaction of $145,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 96,304 shares in the company, valued at $7,026,339.84. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Gilead Sciences in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,301,624,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in shares of Gilead Sciences by 78.8% in the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 7,632,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $618,268,000 after acquiring an additional 3,362,505 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Gilead Sciences by 179.0% in the 3rd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 4,543,985 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $340,526,000 after acquiring an additional 2,915,141 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position 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 in the last quarter. Finally, abrdn plc raised its position in shares of Gilead Sciences by 89.0% in the 4th quarter. abrdn plc now owns 3,764,107 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $304,930,000 after acquiring an additional 1,772,887 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.67% of the company’s stock.

Gilead Sciences Trading Up 0.8 %

GILD opened at $65.94 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $71.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $76.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $82.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 183.17, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.72. Gilead Sciences has a one year low of $64.63 and a one year high of $87.86.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.32) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.49) by $0.17. The business had revenue of $6.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.36 billion. Gilead Sciences had a return on equity of 24.34% and a net margin of 1.76%. Gilead Sciences’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.37 EPS. Analysts predict that Gilead Sciences will post 3.82 EPS for the current year.

Gilead Sciences Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. Gilead Sciences’s payout ratio is 855.56%.

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.