Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Sells 1,415 Shares of Zoetis Inc. $ZTS

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. reduced its position in Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 489,773 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,415 shares during the quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. owned about 0.11% of Zoetis worth $76,380,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Zoetis by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,556,164 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,842,222,000 after purchasing an additional 189,287 shares in the last quarter. Polen Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Zoetis by 17.6% in the 1st quarter. Polen Capital Management LLC now owns 8,796,847 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,448,401,000 after purchasing an additional 1,313,653 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Zoetis by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,504,902 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,071,032,000 after purchasing an additional 78,508 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in Zoetis by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,146,024 shares of the company’s stock worth $847,293,000 after buying an additional 109,791 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its position in Zoetis by 7.6% during the 1st quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 4,408,542 shares of the company’s stock worth $725,866,000 after buying an additional 312,746 shares during the period. 92.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on ZTS. Leerink Partners downgraded shares of Zoetis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $180.00 to $155.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Argus reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $190.00 target price on shares of Zoetis in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Zoetis from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Zoetis in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Leerink Partnrs downgraded shares of Zoetis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $196.71.

Zoetis Stock Down 1.6%

Shares of NYSE ZTS opened at $141.05 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $62.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.90. Zoetis Inc. has a 52-week low of $139.34 and a 52-week high of $196.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.76. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $149.24 and its 200-day moving average price is $154.41.

Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $1.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $2.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.41 billion. Zoetis had a net margin of 27.83% and a return on equity of 56.90%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.56 EPS. Zoetis has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.300-6.400 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Zoetis Inc. will post 6.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Zoetis Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 31st will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 31st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.4%. Zoetis’s payout ratio is currently 34.42%.

About Zoetis

Zoetis Inc engages in the discovery, development, manufacture, and commercialization of animal health medicines, vaccines, and diagnostic products and services in the United States and internationally. The company commercializes products primarily across species, including livestock, such as cattle, swine, poultry, fish, and sheep and others; and companion animals comprising dogs, cats, and horses.