Royal Bank of Canada Cuts Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) Price Target to $74.00

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) had its target price trimmed by Royal Bank of Canada from $76.00 to $74.00 in a research note published on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a sector perform rating on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the company. HSBC raised Gilead Sciences from a reduce rating to a hold rating and set a $69.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Barclays dropped their target price on Gilead Sciences from $85.00 to $80.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Oppenheimer restated an outperform rating and set a $105.00 price target on shares of Gilead Sciences in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a hold rating on shares of Gilead Sciences in a research report on Friday. Finally, Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Gilead Sciences from $101.00 to $90.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $83.87.

Gilead Sciences Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GILD opened at $65.42 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. The company has a market capitalization of $81.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 181.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.19. Gilead Sciences has a twelve month low of $64.63 and a twelve month high of $87.86. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $71.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $76.25.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.32) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.49) by $0.17. Gilead Sciences had a net margin of 1.76% and a return on equity of 23.08%. The firm had revenue of $6.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.36 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.37 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Gilead Sciences will post 3.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Gilead Sciences Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be given a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. Gilead Sciences’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 855.56%.

Insider Transactions at Gilead Sciences

In related news, insider Merdad Parsey sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $7,026,339.84. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Gilead Sciences

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. bought a new stake in Gilead Sciences during the fourth quarter worth approximately $210,000. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,787,355 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $306,814,000 after acquiring an additional 175,925 shares during the last quarter. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Gilead Sciences during the fourth quarter worth $74,000. Abundance Wealth Counselors purchased a new stake in shares of Gilead Sciences during the third quarter valued at $1,881,000. Finally, HTLF Bank acquired a new position in shares of Gilead Sciences in the 4th quarter valued at $253,000. Institutional investors own 83.67% of the company’s stock.

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.