Alaska Permanent Fund Corp Sells 25,031 Shares of Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)

Alaska Permanent Fund Corp lowered its stake in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) by 12.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 177,378 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 25,031 shares during the quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp’s holdings in Gilead Sciences were worth $14,369,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 179.0% during the third quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 4,543,985 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $340,526,000 after buying an additional 2,915,141 shares during the last quarter. abrdn plc boosted its position in Gilead Sciences by 89.0% during the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 3,764,107 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $304,930,000 after purchasing an additional 1,772,887 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Gilead Sciences during the fourth quarter worth $133,584,000. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc bought a new position in Gilead Sciences during the fourth quarter worth $63,971,000. Finally, Bailard Inc. boosted its position in Gilead Sciences by 9,100.7% during the third quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 722,345 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $54,133,000 after purchasing an additional 714,494 shares during the period. 83.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Gilead Sciences

In other news, insider Merdad Parsey sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the insider now directly 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 at the SEC website. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on GILD shares. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their price objective on shares of Gilead Sciences from $80.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Truist Financial cut shares of Gilead Sciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $91.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Gilead Sciences from $84.00 to $77.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 4th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Gilead Sciences from $81.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 price objective on shares of Gilead Sciences in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Gilead Sciences currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $84.57.

Gilead Sciences Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of Gilead Sciences stock traded up $0.40 on Thursday, hitting $67.48. The stock had a trading volume of 597,665 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,229,048. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $71.56 and a 200 day moving average of $76.39. Gilead Sciences, Inc. has a twelve month low of $65.90 and a twelve month high of $87.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $84.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.98, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 0.19.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.76 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $7.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.10 billion. Gilead Sciences had a net margin of 20.89% and a return on equity of 38.85%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.67 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Gilead Sciences, Inc. will post 5.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gilead Sciences Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.77 dividend. This is a positive change from Gilead Sciences’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.56%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Gilead Sciences’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.