Royal Bank of Canada Reiterates “Sector Perform” Rating for Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD)

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD)‘s stock had its “sector perform” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at Royal Bank of Canada in a note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $74.00 price target on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target indicates a potential upside of 8.19% from the stock’s previous close.

GILD has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Gilead Sciences in a report on Thursday, June 20th. HSBC raised Gilead Sciences from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $69.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Gilead Sciences from $81.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Gilead Sciences from $80.00 to $78.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Maxim Group reduced their target price on Gilead Sciences from $90.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Gilead Sciences presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.47.

Gilead Sciences Stock Performance

Shares of GILD stock opened at $68.40 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $85.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 190.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.18. The business’s 50 day moving average is $66.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $72.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.31. Gilead Sciences has a 12-month low of $62.07 and a 12-month high of $87.86.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.32) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.49) by $0.17. The company had revenue of $6.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.36 billion. Gilead Sciences had a return on equity of 24.34% and a net margin of 1.76%. Gilead Sciences’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.37 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Gilead Sciences will post 3.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Merdad Parsey sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.63, for a total value of $137,260.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 96,380 shares in the company, valued at $6,614,559.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Gilead Sciences during the fourth quarter worth $210,000. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its position in shares of Gilead Sciences by 4.9% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,787,355 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $306,814,000 after buying an additional 175,925 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,281,489 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $589,873,000 after purchasing an additional 87,482 shares during the period. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Gilead Sciences in the fourth quarter valued at $74,000. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 23.6% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 317,539 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $25,724,000 after purchasing an additional 60,697 shares during the period. 83.67% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Gilead Sciences

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.