Needham & Company LLC Reiterates “Hold” Rating for Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD)

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD)‘s stock had its “hold” rating restated by stock analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Mizuho lowered their price target on Gilead Sciences from $101.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Barclays decreased their target price on Gilead Sciences from $85.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 12th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Gilead Sciences from $81.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Truist Financial cut Gilead Sciences from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $91.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 target price on shares of Gilead Sciences in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Gilead Sciences currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $83.87.

Gilead Sciences Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ GILD opened at $65.42 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $81.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 181.72, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.19. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $71.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $76.25. Gilead Sciences has a 52 week low of $64.63 and a 52 week high of $87.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.43.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.32) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.49) by $0.17. The business had revenue of $6.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.36 billion. Gilead Sciences had a return on equity of 23.08% and a net margin of 1.76%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.37 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Gilead Sciences will post 4.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Gilead Sciences

In related news, insider Merdad Parsey sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.96, for a total value of $145,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 96,304 shares in the company, valued at $7,026,339.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of GILD. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Gilead Sciences in the fourth quarter valued at $1,301,624,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in Gilead Sciences by 78.8% during the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 7,632,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $618,268,000 after acquiring an additional 3,362,505 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its stake in Gilead Sciences by 179.0% during the third quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 4,543,985 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $340,526,000 after acquiring an additional 2,915,141 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Gilead Sciences by 14.4% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 18,630,134 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,509,227,000 after acquiring an additional 2,350,550 shares in the last quarter. Finally, abrdn plc raised its stake in Gilead Sciences by 89.0% during the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 3,764,107 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $304,930,000 after acquiring an additional 1,772,887 shares in the last quarter. 83.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.