Investors Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD)

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Traders bought 42,588 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 240% compared to the typical volume of 12,513 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on GILD shares. Truist Financial lowered shares of Gilead Sciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $91.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. HSBC raised shares of Gilead Sciences from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $69.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Mizuho lowered their price target on Gilead Sciences from $101.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Gilead Sciences from $76.00 to $75.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on Gilead Sciences from $85.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 12th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $84.57.

Insider Activity at Gilead Sciences

In other news, insider Merdad Parsey sold 2,000 shares of the company’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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 96,304 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,026,339.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Gilead Sciences

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Gilead Sciences during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Tompkins Financial Corp increased its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 223.1% in the 3rd quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 349 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 241 shares in the last quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC purchased a new stake in Gilead Sciences in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in Gilead Sciences during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Sachetta LLC purchased a new position in Gilead Sciences during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.67% of the company’s stock.

Gilead Sciences Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GILD opened at $65.27 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $81.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.50, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.19. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $71.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $76.32. Gilead Sciences has a 12 month low of $65.09 and a 12 month high of $87.86.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.32) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.49) by $0.17. The company had revenue of $6.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.36 billion. Gilead Sciences had a net margin of 20.89% and a return on equity of 38.85%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.37 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Gilead Sciences will post 4.2 EPS for the current year.

Gilead Sciences Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Gilead Sciences’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Gilead Sciences’s payout ratio is currently 68.44%.

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.