New York State Common Retirement Fund Lowers Stock Holdings in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)

New York State Common Retirement Fund reduced its stake in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) by 4.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,632,088 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 80,477 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned about 0.13% of Gilead Sciences worth $150,756,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GILD. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Gilead Sciences by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 60,171,691 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $5,044,795,000 after purchasing an additional 841,776 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Gilead Sciences by 50.9% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised 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 worth $2,780,329,000 after buying an additional 14,680,161 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Gilead Sciences by 2.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 27,540,870 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,302,119,000 after buying an additional 574,421 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences by 3.0% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,752,975 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $650,009,000 after buying an additional 224,960 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.67% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Jeffrey Bluestone sold 6,788 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.39, for a total value of $620,355.32. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 8,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $815,198.80. This trade represents a 43.21 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Andrew D. Dickinson sold 137,676 shares of Gilead Sciences stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.22, for a total transaction of $14,073,240.72. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 171,223 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,502,415.06. This represents a 44.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 710,500 shares of company stock worth $67,684,956. Corporate insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on the company. Daiwa America upgraded Gilead Sciences to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Gilead Sciences from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $108.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Gilead Sciences from $83.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Gilead Sciences from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Gilead Sciences in a research note 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $102.08.

Gilead Sciences Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GILD opened at $105.25 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The company has a market cap of $131.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 1,169.44, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.18. Gilead Sciences, Inc. has a 1 year low of $62.07 and a 1 year high of $106.69. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $94.39 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $88.09.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.67 by $0.23. Gilead Sciences had a net margin of 0.45% and a return on equity of 29.00%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Gilead Sciences, Inc. will post 4.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gilead Sciences Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.79 dividend. This is an increase from Gilead Sciences’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.00%. Gilead Sciences’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 3,422.22%.

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.