Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Gilead Sciences Put Options (NASDAQ:GILD)

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) was the target of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock investors purchased 42,588 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 240% compared to the average volume of 12,513 put options.

Insider Activity

In other 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 96,304 shares in the company, valued at $7,026,339.84. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GILD. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Gilead Sciences by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 83,364,123 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $6,753,350,000 after acquiring an additional 1,642,736 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Gilead Sciences by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 59,657,126 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $4,832,824,000 after buying an additional 1,743,418 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in 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 worth $1,509,227,000 after acquiring an additional 2,350,550 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in Gilead Sciences by 0.9% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,909,619 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,267,207,000 after buying an additional 158,794 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Gilead Sciences in the fourth quarter worth about $1,301,624,000. Institutional investors own 83.67% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GILD shares. StockNews.com upgraded Gilead Sciences from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Mizuho lowered their price objective 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. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Gilead Sciences from $80.00 to $78.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Barclays lowered their price objective on Gilead Sciences from $85.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Gilead Sciences in a research note on Friday. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $83.87.

Gilead Sciences Stock Up 0.2 %

GILD stock opened at $65.42 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $71.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $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 current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $81.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.19.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.32) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.49) by $0.17. Gilead Sciences had a return on equity of 38.85% and a net margin of 20.89%. The company had revenue of $6.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.36 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.37 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Gilead Sciences will post 4.2 EPS for the current year.

Gilead Sciences Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This is an increase from Gilead Sciences’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Gilead Sciences’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 68.44%.

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.