Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Boosts Stake in Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) by 7.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 99,536 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 6,980 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Gilead Sciences were worth $8,063,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. bought a new position in shares of Gilead Sciences during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $210,000. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in shares of Gilead Sciences by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,787,355 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $306,814,000 after acquiring an additional 175,925 shares during the period. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Gilead Sciences in the 4th quarter worth about $74,000. Abundance Wealth Counselors purchased a new position in shares of Gilead Sciences during the 3rd quarter worth about $1,881,000. Finally, HTLF Bank bought a new position in Gilead Sciences during the 4th quarter valued at about $253,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.67% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on GILD shares. UBS Group cut their target price on Gilead Sciences from $81.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $105.00 price objective on shares of Gilead Sciences in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Gilead Sciences from $76.00 to $74.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 26th. HSBC raised shares of Gilead Sciences from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $69.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Maxim Group lowered their price objective on shares of Gilead Sciences from $90.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Gilead Sciences has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.69.

Gilead Sciences Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:GILD traded up $0.76 on Monday, reaching $65.54. The company had a trading volume of 7,186,870 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,456,667. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $81.60 billion, a PE ratio of 182.06, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.22. Gilead Sciences, Inc. has a 52-week low of $64.33 and a 52-week high of $87.86. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $70.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $75.68.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.32) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.49) by $0.17. Gilead Sciences had a net margin of 1.76% and a return on equity of 24.34%. The company had revenue of $6.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.36 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.37 earnings per share. Gilead Sciences’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Gilead Sciences, Inc. will post 3.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gilead Sciences Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. Gilead Sciences’s dividend payout ratio is presently 855.56%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Merdad Parsey sold 2,000 shares of Gilead Sciences stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.96, for a total transaction of $145,920.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 96,304 shares in the company, valued at $7,026,339.84. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Gilead Sciences Company 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.