New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 80,477 Shares of Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)

New York State Common Retirement Fund cut its stake in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) by 4.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,632,088 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 80,477 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Gilead Sciences were worth $150,756,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GILD. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Gilead Sciences during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Gilead Sciences by 118.5% in the fourth quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 284 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares in the last quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 101.9% during the 3rd quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 319 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares during the period. YANKCOM Partnership bought a new stake in Gilead Sciences during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Gilead Sciences in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Institutional investors own 83.67% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GILD has been the subject of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Gilead Sciences from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Daiwa America upgraded shares of Gilead Sciences to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Gilead Sciences from $83.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Gilead Sciences from $84.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Maxim Group cut Gilead Sciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $102.08.

Gilead Sciences Stock Performance

Shares of GILD stock opened at $105.25 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $94.39 and a 200 day moving average of $88.09. Gilead Sciences, Inc. has a 1 year low of $62.07 and a 1 year high of $106.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $131.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 1,169.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.18.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.67 by $0.23. Gilead Sciences had a return on equity of 29.00% and a net margin of 0.45%. As a group, research analysts expect that Gilead Sciences, Inc. will post 4.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Gilead Sciences Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.79 dividend. This is an increase from Gilead Sciences’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Gilead Sciences’s dividend payout ratio is 3,422.22%.

Insider Transactions at Gilead Sciences

In related news, CFO Andrew D. Dickinson sold 248,645 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.76, for a total transaction of $23,064,310.20. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 138,919 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,886,126.44. This trade represents a 64.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Merdad Parsey sold 164,211 shares of Gilead Sciences stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.92, for a total value of $15,094,275.12. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 80,801 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,427,227.92. This represents a 67.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 710,500 shares of company stock worth $67,684,956 over the last 90 days. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Gilead Sciences

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.