Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Sells 135,597 Shares of Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec reduced its position in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) by 24.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 411,727 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 135,597 shares during the quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec’s holdings in Gilead Sciences were worth $34,519,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Gilead Sciences by 79.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 33,162,319 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,780,329,000 after purchasing an additional 14,680,161 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Gilead Sciences by 8,238.4% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,642,504 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $137,708,000 after buying an additional 1,622,806 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Gilead Sciences by 24.7% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 7,889,663 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $541,310,000 after acquiring an additional 1,564,792 shares during the last quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C purchased a new stake in shares of Gilead Sciences in the 2nd quarter valued at about $102,298,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Gilead Sciences by 159.8% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,337,717 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $195,994,000 after acquiring an additional 1,437,842 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.67% of the company’s stock.

Gilead Sciences Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GILD opened at $92.58 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $88.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $77.84. The stock has a market cap of $115.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 1,028.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.17. Gilead Sciences, Inc. has a twelve month low of $62.07 and a twelve month high of $98.90.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last announced its 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. Gilead Sciences had a net margin of 0.45% and a return on equity of 29.00%. The firm had revenue of $7.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.29 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Gilead Sciences, Inc. will post 4.37 EPS for the current year.

Gilead Sciences Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Gilead Sciences’s payout ratio is presently 3,422.22%.

Insider Activity at Gilead Sciences

In other Gilead Sciences news, Director Jeffrey Bluestone sold 6,788 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director now directly owns 8,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $815,198.80. The trade was a 43.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Merdad Parsey sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.83, for a total transaction of $167,660.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 100,189 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,398,843.87. The trade was a 1.96 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 227,946 shares of company stock worth $20,683,305 over the last ninety days. 0.16% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Gilead Sciences from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Gilead Sciences from $94.00 to $102.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Gilead Sciences from $83.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Gilead Sciences from $74.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Gilead Sciences from $81.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.41.

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.