Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Takes $14.12 Million Position in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 174,300 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,120,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Gilead Sciences by 324.8% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 18,002,214 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,070,232,000 after acquiring an additional 13,764,169 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its position in Gilead Sciences by 11.5% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 17,196,950 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,476,358,000 after purchasing an additional 1,780,489 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in Gilead Sciences by 70.6% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 15,492,116 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $921,006,000 after purchasing an additional 6,410,047 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Gilead Sciences by 14.8% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 15,421,436 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $951,350,000 after purchasing an additional 1,987,058 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Gilead Sciences by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 14,969,251 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $889,922,000 after purchasing an additional 430,810 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.67% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on GILD. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Gilead Sciences from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Gilead Sciences from $85.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 12th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Gilead Sciences from $76.00 to $75.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Truist Financial lowered shares of Gilead Sciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $91.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their price target on shares of Gilead Sciences from $115.00 to $105.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $85.36.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Andrew D. Dickinson sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.78, for a total value of $428,900.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 101,534 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,709,586.52. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, insider Merdad Parsey sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.96, for a total value of $145,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 96,304 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,026,339.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Andrew D. Dickinson sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.78, for a total transaction of $428,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 101,534 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,709,586.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 9,000 shares of company stock valued at $721,180. 0.16% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Gilead Sciences Stock Down 0.8 %

NASDAQ:GILD traded down $0.58 on Friday, hitting $68.07. 5,691,760 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,553,057. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $72.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $76.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.27. Gilead Sciences, Inc. has a 52 week low of $67.62 and a 52 week high of $87.86. The company has a market cap of $84.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 0.19.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.04). Gilead Sciences had a return on equity of 38.85% and a net margin of 20.89%. The business had revenue of $7.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.10 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.67 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Gilead Sciences, Inc. will post 7.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gilead Sciences Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This is a boost from Gilead Sciences’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.52%. Gilead Sciences’s payout ratio is 68.44%.

Gilead Sciences 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.