Principal Financial Group Inc. Trims Stake in Zoetis Inc. $ZTS

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) by 4.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 527,859 shares of the company’s stock after selling 24,472 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.13% of Zoetis worth $37,932,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its stake in Zoetis by 12,431.2% in the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 24,069,492 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,028,423,000 after purchasing an additional 23,877,416 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Zoetis in the 4th quarter worth approximately $734,425,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Zoetis by 12.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 47,780,974 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,011,802,000 after buying an additional 5,474,210 shares during the last quarter. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. bought a new position in shares of Zoetis in the 1st quarter worth $286,660,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of Zoetis by 269.0% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,387,059 shares of the company’s stock valued at $300,340,000 after buying an additional 1,740,113 shares in the last quarter. 92.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on ZTS shares. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Zoetis from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Morgan Stanley set a $85.00 target price on Zoetis in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Zoetis from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Zoetis from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Zoetis from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a report on Friday, June 12th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $109.62.

Zoetis Trading Down 2.9%

ZTS stock opened at $73.64 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $30.43 billion, a PE ratio of 12.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.87, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 3.08. Zoetis Inc. has a one year low of $71.45 and a one year high of $160.48. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $76.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $99.01.

Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.02. Zoetis had a net margin of 27.49% and a return on equity of 74.89%. The company had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.76 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .2% on a year-over-year basis. Zoetis has set its FY 2026 guidance at 6.150-6.250 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Zoetis Inc. will post 6.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Zoetis Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 20th will be paid a $0.53 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 20th. This represents a $2.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. Zoetis’s payout ratio is currently 34.93%.

Zoetis Profile

Zoetis Inc (NYSE: ZTS) is a global animal health company that develops, manufactures and markets a broad portfolio of products and services for companion animals and livestock. The company’s offerings include pharmaceuticals, vaccines and biologics, parasiticides and anti-infectives, as well as diagnostic instruments, consumables and laboratory testing services. Zoetis serves the veterinary community, livestock producers and other animal-health customers with products designed to prevent, detect and treat disease and to support animal productivity and welfare.

Zoetis traces its roots to the animal health business of Pfizer and became an independent, publicly traded company following a 2013 separation and initial public offering.