Traders Purchase Large Volume of Gilead Sciences Call Options (NASDAQ:GILD)

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Investors purchased 28,056 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 104% compared to the typical daily volume of 13,758 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on GILD shares. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Gilead Sciences from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Gilead Sciences in a research note on Friday. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Gilead Sciences from $81.00 to $75.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Gilead Sciences from $84.00 to $77.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $105.00 price objective on shares of Gilead Sciences in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.60.

Insider Buying and Selling at Gilead Sciences

In other Gilead Sciences 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 value of $145,920.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 96,304 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,026,339.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Gilead Sciences

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

Gilead Sciences Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ GILD traded up $1.21 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $66.63. 3,102,365 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,419,574. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.08. The company has a market cap of $82.96 billion, a PE ratio of 185.22, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.19. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $71.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $76.25. Gilead Sciences has a 12 month low of $64.63 and a 12 month high of $87.86.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last posted 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 business had revenue of $6.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.36 billion. Gilead Sciences had a net margin of 1.76% and a return on equity of 24.34%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.37 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Gilead Sciences will post 3.82 EPS for the current year.

Gilead Sciences Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.62%. Gilead Sciences’s payout ratio is currently 855.56%.

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.