Zoetis Inc. (ZTS) To Go Ex-Dividend on January 21st

Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 12th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, January 21st will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share on Tuesday, March 4th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 21st. This is a boost from Zoetis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43.

Zoetis has raised its dividend payment by an average of 23.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Zoetis has a payout ratio of 27.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Zoetis to earn $6.38 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.73 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 27.1%.

Zoetis Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of ZTS opened at $178.18 on Friday. Zoetis has a fifty-two week low of $144.80 and a fifty-two week high of $201.92. The company has a market capitalization of $80.39 billion, a PE ratio of 33.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $180.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $181.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 2.27 and a current ratio of 3.69.

Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $2.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 period in the prior year, the business posted $1.36 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Zoetis will post 5.9 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on ZTS shares. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Zoetis in a report on Monday, December 9th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $196.00 target price for the company. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Zoetis from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Leerink Partners initiated coverage on Zoetis in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $215.00 target price on the stock. Leerink Partnrs upgraded Zoetis to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Zoetis from $225.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $216.70.

About Zoetis

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.