Sheets Smith Wealth Management Lowers Position in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)

Sheets Smith Wealth Management lowered its position in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) by 45.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,089 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 5,975 shares during the period. Sheets Smith Wealth Management’s holdings in Gilead Sciences were worth $655,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GILD. Avior Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Gilead Sciences by 1.2% during the third quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,422 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $782,000 after buying an additional 108 shares during the period. Concord Asset Management LLC VA lifted its position in Gilead Sciences by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Concord Asset Management LLC VA now owns 3,056 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $256,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares during the period. TFB Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Gilead Sciences by 1.2% during the third quarter. TFB Advisors LLC now owns 9,397 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $788,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. grew its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 0.7% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 17,822 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,494,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. Finally, FDx Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences by 2.2% during the third quarter. FDx Advisors Inc. now owns 5,365 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $450,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.67% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Gilead Sciences

In other Gilead Sciences news, CFO Andrew D. Dickinson sold 248,645 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.76, for a total value of $23,064,310.20. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 138,919 shares in the company, valued at $12,886,126.44. The trade was a 64.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Merdad Parsey sold 25,590 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were 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. The trade was a 20.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 456,234 shares of company stock valued at $42,130,461 over the last ninety days. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on GILD shares. Barclays upped their price target on Gilead Sciences from $84.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Gilead Sciences from $70.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $84.00 price objective on shares of Gilead Sciences in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Gilead Sciences from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Gilead Sciences from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Gilead Sciences presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $97.96.

Gilead Sciences Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GILD opened at $93.04 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $91.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $84.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.26. Gilead Sciences, Inc. has a 52-week low of $62.07 and a 52-week high of $98.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $115.95 billion, a PE ratio of 1,033.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.18.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.58 by $0.44. The company had revenue of $7.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.01 billion. Gilead Sciences had a net margin of 0.45% and a return on equity of 29.00%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.29 EPS. Analysts forecast that Gilead Sciences, Inc. will post 4.36 EPS for the current year.

Gilead Sciences Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.31%. Gilead Sciences’s payout ratio 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.