Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. Raises Stake in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)

Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. grew its holdings in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) by 4.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 80,232 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,637 shares during the quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Gilead Sciences were worth $7,411,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GILD. Bellevue Group AG lifted its position in Gilead Sciences by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 46,027 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $3,859,000 after acquiring an additional 7,093 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of Gilead Sciences by 149.5% during the third quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 81,620 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $6,843,000 after purchasing an additional 48,910 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences by 0.8% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 12,414,268 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $851,743,000 after purchasing an additional 93,068 shares during the period. IRON Financial LLC purchased a new position in Gilead Sciences in the 3rd quarter valued at $830,000. Finally, Capital Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Gilead Sciences by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 387,492 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $35,793,000 after buying an additional 9,791 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.67% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GILD has been the subject of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $84.00 price target on shares of Gilead Sciences in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Truist Financial increased their target price on Gilead Sciences from $83.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Barclays upped their price objective on Gilead Sciences from $84.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Gilead Sciences from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $87.00 to $113.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Gilead Sciences from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Gilead Sciences has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $97.96.

Insider Transactions at Gilead Sciences

In other Gilead Sciences news, Director Jeffrey Bluestone sold 6,788 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.39, for a total value of $620,355.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 8,920 shares in the company, valued at $815,198.80. This represents a 43.21 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Merdad Parsey sold 25,590 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.50, for a total transaction of $2,341,485.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 99,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,113,308.50. This trade represents a 20.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 456,234 shares of company stock worth $42,130,461. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Gilead Sciences Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of GILD stock opened at $93.04 on Thursday. Gilead Sciences, Inc. has a 1-year low of $62.07 and a 1-year high of $98.90. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $91.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $84.63. The firm has a market cap of $115.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 1,033.78, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.10.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $2.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.44. The company had revenue of $7.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.01 billion. Gilead Sciences had a net margin of 0.45% and a return on equity of 29.00%. Gilead Sciences’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.29 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Gilead Sciences, Inc. will post 4.36 EPS for the current year.

Gilead Sciences Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Gilead Sciences’s dividend payout ratio is currently 3,422.22%.

Gilead Sciences 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.