Ascent Group LLC Grows Stake in Gilead Sciences, Inc. $GILD

Ascent Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) by 52.7% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 49,324 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 17,016 shares during the period. Ascent Group LLC’s holdings in Gilead Sciences were worth $5,469,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Gilead Sciences during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Activest Wealth Management boosted its position in Gilead Sciences by 2,837.5% during the 1st quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 235 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Goodman Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in Gilead Sciences during the 1st quarter valued at $29,000. Colonial Trust Advisors boosted its position in Gilead Sciences by 304.3% during the 1st quarter. Colonial Trust Advisors now owns 283 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 213 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Core Alternative Capital boosted its position in shares of Gilead Sciences by 370.8% in the 1st quarter. Core Alternative Capital now owns 306 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 241 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.67% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Gilead Sciences news, CFO Andrew D. Dickinson sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.57, for a total transaction of $283,925.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 159,555 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,120,661.35. The trade was a 1.54% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Daniel Patrick O’day sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.94, for a total value of $1,139,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 605,725 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,016,306.50. This trade represents a 1.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 82,000 shares of company stock worth $9,402,130 in the last 90 days. 0.27% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Gilead Sciences Stock Performance

Shares of GILD stock opened at $112.69 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $139.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.15. The business has a fifty day moving average of $114.34 and a 200 day moving average of $109.92. Gilead Sciences, Inc. has a 1 year low of $83.98 and a 1 year high of $121.83.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $2.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.96 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $7.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.95 billion. Gilead Sciences had a return on equity of 50.99% and a net margin of 21.86%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.01 EPS. Gilead Sciences has set its FY 2025 guidance at 7.950-8.250 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Gilead Sciences, Inc. will post 7.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Gilead Sciences Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th were issued a $0.79 dividend. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 15th. Gilead Sciences’s payout ratio is 62.95%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GILD. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Gilead Sciences from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised their price objective on Gilead Sciences from $136.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 12th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Gilead Sciences in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Daiwa America raised Gilead Sciences from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets raised Gilead Sciences from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $128.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $117.17.

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.