Crews Bank & Trust Acquires New Shares in Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS)

Crews Bank & Trust purchased a new position in Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 2,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $341,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pensionfund Sabic lifted its position in shares of Zoetis by 55.6% in the fourth quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 11,200 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,825,000 after buying an additional 4,000 shares during the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Zoetis in the fourth quarter worth about $1,764,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Zoetis by 10.6% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,916,539 shares of the company’s stock worth $569,834,000 after buying an additional 279,092 shares during the last quarter. Simplify Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Zoetis in the third quarter worth about $11,684,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of Zoetis by 38.3% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,065,514 shares of the company’s stock worth $336,266,000 after buying an additional 572,511 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Zoetis from $225.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Leerink Partnrs raised Zoetis to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Zoetis from $248.00 to $243.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Zoetis from $210.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Leerink Partners assumed coverage on Zoetis in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $215.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $215.00.

Zoetis Trading Up 1.4 %

ZTS stock opened at $172.61 on Friday. Zoetis Inc. has a 1-year low of $144.80 and a 1-year high of $200.53. The firm has a market cap of $77.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.89. The business’s 50 day moving average is $169.82 and its 200-day moving average is $179.59. The company has a current ratio of 3.69, a quick ratio of 2.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26.

Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.12. Zoetis had a return on equity of 51.98% and a net margin of 26.55%. The company had revenue of $2.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.29 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.36 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Zoetis Inc. will post 5.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Zoetis Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 21st will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This is a positive change from Zoetis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 21st. Zoetis’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.59%.

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.