GSA Capital Partners LLP Sells 958 Shares of Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS)

GSA Capital Partners LLP cut its holdings in Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) by 6.9% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 13,000 shares of the company’s stock after selling 958 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP’s holdings in Zoetis were worth $2,140,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its stake in Zoetis by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 245,726 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,036,000 after purchasing an additional 6,169 shares during the last quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in Zoetis by 24.7% in the first quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC now owns 33,709 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,550,000 after purchasing an additional 6,672 shares during the last quarter. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Zoetis by 100.3% in the first quarter. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 395,626 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,140,000 after purchasing an additional 198,089 shares during the last quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Zoetis by 31.2% in the first quarter. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC now owns 7,394 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,217,000 after purchasing an additional 1,760 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Horizon Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Zoetis in the first quarter valued at about $380,000. 92.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on ZTS shares. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Zoetis from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $165.00 to $160.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 18th. Leerink Partnrs downgraded shares of Zoetis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Leerink Partners downgraded shares of Zoetis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $180.00 to $155.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Zoetis from $189.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Zoetis from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Zoetis currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.63.

Zoetis Price Performance

ZTS stock opened at $150.65 on Tuesday. Zoetis Inc. has a 1 year low of $139.70 and a 1 year high of $200.33. The company has a market cap of $67.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.05, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.91. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $159.64 and a 200 day moving average of $160.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.74 and a quick ratio of 1.04.

Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $1.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.08. Zoetis had a net margin of 27.12% and a return on equity of 55.48%. The company had revenue of $2.22 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.20 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.38 earnings per share. Zoetis’s revenue was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Zoetis Inc. will post 6.07 EPS for the current year.

Zoetis Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 18th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 18th. Zoetis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.91%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Zoetis news, EVP Roxanne Lagano sold 652 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.00, for a total value of $110,840.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 15,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,571,930. This represents a 4.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.