Edge Capital Group LLC Buys Shares of 2,298 Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)

Edge Capital Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 2,298 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $212,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. AMF Tjanstepension AB grew its stake in shares of Gilead Sciences by 14.7% in the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 400,819 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $33,645,000 after acquiring an additional 51,390 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 10.2% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,047,609 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $171,672,000 after purchasing an additional 189,622 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Gilead Sciences by 12.9% during the 3rd quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 323,011 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $27,081,000 after purchasing an additional 36,895 shares in the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Gilead Sciences by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 11,232 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $942,000 after purchasing an additional 631 shares during the period. Finally, FCG Investment Co raised its position in Gilead Sciences by 26.8% in the 3rd quarter. FCG Investment Co now owns 10,237 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $858,000 after purchasing an additional 2,163 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.67% of the company’s stock.

Gilead Sciences Price Performance

Shares of GILD opened at $111.03 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.50. Gilead Sciences, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $62.07 and a fifty-two week high of $111.99. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $95.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $89.08. The company has a market capitalization of $138.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 300.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.18.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.23. Gilead Sciences had a return on equity of 31.63% and a net margin of 1.67%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Gilead Sciences, Inc. will post 7.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Gilead Sciences Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.79 dividend. This is a boost from Gilead Sciences’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.85%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Gilead Sciences’s payout ratio is currently 854.05%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GILD has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Gilead Sciences from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $80.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Gilead Sciences from $105.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Gilead Sciences in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. UBS Group increased their target price on Gilead Sciences from $70.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Gilead Sciences from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Gilead Sciences presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $102.08.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Gilead Sciences news, CFO Andrew D. Dickinson sold 248,645 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.76, for a total transaction of $23,064,310.20. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 138,919 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,886,126.44. The trade was a 64.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Merdad Parsey sold 164,211 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.92, for a total value of $15,094,275.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 80,801 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,427,227.92. This represents a 67.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 706,212 shares of company stock worth $67,324,826. 0.16% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Gilead Sciences Company Profile

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.