Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Acquires 498 Shares of Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,347 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 498 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Zoetis were worth $1,435,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Prevail Innovative Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Zoetis by 24.5% in the first quarter. Prevail Innovative Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 18,977 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,211,000 after purchasing an additional 3,738 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Zoetis in the first quarter valued at approximately $19,819,000. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of Zoetis by 275.2% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 96,085 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,259,000 after purchasing an additional 70,476 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in Zoetis by 19.6% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 370,069 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,622,000 after purchasing an additional 60,698 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Zoetis by 49.6% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 25,051 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,235,000 after purchasing an additional 8,302 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ZTS. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Zoetis from $200.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Zoetis from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. BTIG Research upped their price target on shares of Zoetis from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Argus raised shares of Zoetis to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Zoetis from $225.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $221.44.

Zoetis Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of ZTS stock opened at $176.82 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $188.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $179.35. Zoetis Inc. has a 1-year low of $144.80 and a 1-year high of $201.92. The company has a market cap of $79.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 3.69 and a quick ratio of 2.09.

Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $2.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.29 billion. Zoetis had a return on equity of 51.98% and a net margin of 26.55%. The company’s revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.36 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Zoetis Inc. will post 5.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Zoetis Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.432 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $1.73 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.98%. Zoetis’s payout ratio is currently 32.52%.

About Zoetis

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.