New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 21,424 Shares of Zoetis Inc. $ZTS

New York State Common Retirement Fund cut its holdings in shares of Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) by 3.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 542,505 shares of the company’s stock after selling 21,424 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Zoetis were worth $79,379,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ZTS. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Zoetis by 0.8% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,886,987 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,532,276,000 after purchasing an additional 330,823 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Zoetis by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,081,301 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,721,356,000 after buying an additional 95,294 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Zoetis during the 2nd quarter worth about $809,491,000. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Zoetis by 5.7% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 4,659,371 shares of the company’s stock worth $726,629,000 after buying an additional 250,829 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Zoetis by 113.0% in the 2nd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,761,920 shares of the company’s stock valued at $586,671,000 after buying an additional 1,995,491 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.80% of the company’s stock.

Zoetis Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:ZTS opened at $121.63 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $124.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $137.47. Zoetis Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.25 and a 1 year high of $177.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.31, a current ratio of 3.64 and a quick ratio of 2.28. The company has a market capitalization of $53.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.97.

Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The company reported $1.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $2.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.42 billion. Zoetis had a return on equity of 57.19% and a net margin of 28.21%.The company’s revenue was up .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.58 EPS. Zoetis has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.300-6.400 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Zoetis Inc. will post 6.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Zoetis Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 20th will be issued a $0.53 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 20th. This represents a $2.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.7%. This is an increase from Zoetis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Zoetis’s payout ratio is 35.69%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Bank of America downgraded shares of Zoetis from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $135.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Barclays began coverage on Zoetis in a research note on Monday, December 8th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $136.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley set a $160.00 price target on Zoetis in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. Weiss Ratings cut Zoetis from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, KeyCorp started coverage on Zoetis in a report on Thursday, November 20th. They set a “sector weight” rating for the company. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Zoetis currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $152.45.

Zoetis Profile

Zoetis Inc (NYSE: ZTS) is a global animal health company that develops, manufactures and markets a broad portfolio of products and services for companion animals and livestock. The company’s offerings include pharmaceuticals, vaccines and biologics, parasiticides and anti-infectives, as well as diagnostic instruments, consumables and laboratory testing services. Zoetis serves the veterinary community, livestock producers and other animal-health customers with products designed to prevent, detect and treat disease and to support animal productivity and welfare.

Zoetis traces its roots to the animal health business of Pfizer and became an independent, publicly traded company following a 2013 separation and initial public offering.