Royal Bank of Canada Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) Stock

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) had its price target lifted by Royal Bank of Canada from $81.00 to $84.00 in a report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a sector perform rating on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on GILD. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Gilead Sciences in a report on Friday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $110.00 target price for the company. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on Gilead Sciences from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Leerink Partners raised Gilead Sciences from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $74.00 to $96.00 in a report on Monday, October 21st. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Gilead Sciences in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Leerink Partnrs raised Gilead Sciences from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Gilead Sciences has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $94.00.

Gilead Sciences Stock Performance

Shares of GILD stock opened at $88.46 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $110.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 982.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.17. The business’s 50 day moving average is $86.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $76.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. Gilead Sciences has a 12-month low of $62.07 and a 12-month high of $98.90.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.44. Gilead Sciences had a return on equity of 29.00% and a net margin of 0.45%. The company had revenue of $7.55 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.01 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.29 earnings per share. Gilead Sciences’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Gilead Sciences will post 4.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gilead Sciences Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.48%. Gilead Sciences’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 3,422.22%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Johanna Mercier sold 29,357 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.78, for a total transaction of $2,459,529.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 78,127 shares in the company, valued at $6,545,480.06. This trade represents a 27.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Merdad Parsey sold 25,590 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.50, for a total value of $2,341,485.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 99,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,113,308.50. This represents a 20.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 56,947 shares of company stock valued at $4,968,674 over the last quarter. 0.16% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 1.4% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 84,497,404 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $6,189,435,000 after purchasing an additional 1,133,281 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 2.7% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 61,246,366 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $4,486,296,000 after purchasing an additional 1,589,240 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 1.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 60,171,691 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $5,044,795,000 after purchasing an additional 841,776 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 50.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 34,600,676 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,900,921,000 after purchasing an additional 11,665,593 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 79.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 33,162,319 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,780,329,000 after purchasing an additional 14,680,161 shares during the period. 83.67% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.