Philadelphia Trust Co. Sells 734 Shares of Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS)

Philadelphia Trust Co. lowered its stake in shares of Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) by 13.2% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 4,830 shares of the company’s stock after selling 734 shares during the period. Philadelphia Trust Co.’s holdings in Zoetis were worth $795,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Zoetis by 180.4% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 4,629 shares of the company’s stock worth $754,000 after buying an additional 2,978 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted its holdings in shares of Zoetis by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 419,530 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,354,000 after buying an additional 21,470 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Zoetis during the fourth quarter worth $216,000. GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Zoetis during the fourth quarter worth $65,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its stake in Zoetis by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 734,744 shares of the company’s stock valued at $119,712,000 after purchasing an additional 16,107 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.80% of the company’s stock.

Zoetis Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ZTS opened at $154.15 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.76, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $154.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $159.20. Zoetis Inc. has a 1-year low of $139.70 and a 1-year high of $200.33. The stock has a market cap of $68.32 billion, a PE ratio of 26.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.88.

Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $1.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.14. Zoetis had a return on equity of 56.90% and a net margin of 27.83%. The firm had revenue of $2.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.41 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.56 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Zoetis Inc. will post 6.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Zoetis Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 18th. Zoetis’s payout ratio is presently 34.42%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on ZTS. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Zoetis from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Zoetis from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $165.00 to $160.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 18th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Zoetis from $189.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Leerink Partnrs downgraded Zoetis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Leerink Partners downgraded Zoetis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $180.00 to $155.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Zoetis currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $202.43.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Zoetis news, EVP Roxanne Lagano sold 652 shares of Zoetis stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.00, for a total transaction of $110,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 15,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,571,930. The trade was a 4.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Zoetis Profile

Zoetis Inc engages in the discovery, development, manufacture, and commercialization of animal health medicines, vaccines, and diagnostic products and services in the United States and internationally. The company commercializes products primarily across species, including livestock, such as cattle, swine, poultry, fish, and sheep and others; and companion animals comprising dogs, cats, and horses.