Park Place Capital Corp Cuts Stake in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)

Park Place Capital Corp reduced its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) by 21.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,782 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 1,814 shares during the period. Park Place Capital Corp’s holdings in Gilead Sciences were worth $549,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in shares of Gilead Sciences by 9.2% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 57,967 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $3,446,000 after purchasing an additional 4,877 shares during the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Gilead Sciences by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 448,409 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $26,660,000 after purchasing an additional 16,643 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management increased its position in shares of Gilead Sciences by 44.3% in the 1st quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 8,642 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $514,000 after purchasing an additional 2,654 shares during the last quarter. Donaldson Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Gilead Sciences by 12.5% in the 1st quarter. Donaldson Capital Management LLC now owns 5,763 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $343,000 after purchasing an additional 641 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ergoteles LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Gilead Sciences in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $2,304,000. 83.67% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on GILD shares. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Gilead Sciences from $85.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 12th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Gilead Sciences from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Gilead Sciences from $84.00 to $77.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Gilead Sciences from $101.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their target price on shares of Gilead Sciences from $80.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Gilead Sciences currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $85.36.

Insider Buying and Selling at Gilead Sciences

In other Gilead Sciences news, CFO Andrew D. Dickinson sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.78, for a total value of $428,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 101,534 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,709,586.52. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Gilead Sciences news, insider Merdad Parsey sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.18, for a total transaction of $146,360.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 100,936 shares in the company, valued at $7,386,496.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Andrew D. Dickinson sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.78, for a total transaction of $428,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 101,534 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,709,586.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 17,242 shares of company stock valued at $1,423,646. 0.16% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Gilead Sciences Price Performance

GILD stock traded up $0.06 during trading on Friday, hitting $69.61. The company had a trading volume of 3,831,281 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,430,770. The firm has a market capitalization of $86.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.46, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 0.19. The business has a 50 day moving average of $73.93 and a 200 day moving average of $77.08. Gilead Sciences, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $68.54 and a fifty-two week high of $87.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.72 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by ($0.04). Gilead Sciences had a net margin of 20.89% and a return on equity of 38.85%. The business had revenue of $7.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.67 earnings per share. Gilead Sciences’s revenue was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Gilead Sciences, Inc. will post 7.07 earnings per share for the current year.

Gilead Sciences Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.42%. This is an increase from Gilead Sciences’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Gilead Sciences’s dividend payout ratio is presently 68.44%.

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.