Brokerages Set Sanofi (NASDAQ:SNY) Price Target at $51.00

Sanofi (NASDAQ:SNY) has been given an average rating of “Hold” by the fifteen research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have given a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $51.00.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley set a $52.00 price objective on shares of Sanofi in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Sanofi from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Wall Street Zen lowered Sanofi from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 21st. BNP Paribas Exane lowered Sanofi from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $50.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Sanofi in a research note on Monday, April 13th.

Sanofi Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SNY opened at $42.38 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a market cap of $102.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.84, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.34. Sanofi has a 52 week low of $41.85 and a 52 week high of $52.68. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $44.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $46.31.

Sanofi Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared an annual dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 4th were paid a dividend of $2.4225 per share. This is a positive change from Sanofi’s previous annual dividend of $2.04. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 4th. This represents a dividend yield of 559.0%. Sanofi’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.16%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sanofi

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in shares of Sanofi by 11.0% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,484,350 shares of the company’s stock worth $456,956,000 after acquiring an additional 940,342 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of Sanofi by 20.4% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,102,196 shares of the company’s stock worth $441,093,000 after acquiring an additional 1,540,271 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Sanofi by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,110,874 shares of the company’s stock worth $296,133,000 after acquiring an additional 313,327 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Sanofi by 81.3% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 5,879,894 shares of the company’s stock worth $284,058,000 after acquiring an additional 2,635,867 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Sanofi by 29.7% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,100,097 shares of the company’s stock worth $247,151,000 after acquiring an additional 1,168,339 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 14.03% of the company’s stock.

About Sanofi

Sanofi (NASDAQ:SNY) is a multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in France that researches, develops, manufactures and markets prescription medicines, vaccines and consumer healthcare products. The company operates across multiple therapeutic areas, including immunology, rare diseases, oncology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, and vaccines through its Sanofi Pasteur division. Sanofi sells products to hospitals, clinics, governments and retail pharmacies, with a broad global footprint and significant presence in Europe, North America and emerging markets.

Key commercial offerings include specialty biologics and established small-molecule medicines.