The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Healthcare company by 0.79% to 34.88 million shares with purchase of 0.27 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 7.53% valued currently at $5.83 billion. In addition, SSgA Funds Management, Inc. raised its holdings by 65802.0 to 19.87 million shares. And AllianceBernstein LP has lifted its position by 2.14% or 0.41 million shares – to 19.51 million shares.
With over 3.33 million Zoetis Inc. (ZTS) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $161.53 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $537.23 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 1.92% and its price on 03/10/23 lost nearly -3.56%. Currently, there are 465.56M common shares owned by the public and among those 458.75M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 16 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for ZTS have a consensus price objective of $219.00. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $260.00 and a low of $185.00. The average price target is 25.13% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 12.69% over that period. But an upside of 37.87% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $220.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 19 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 11 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 26,389 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 8 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 27,643 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Zoetis Inc. are Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and American Funds New Perspective Fu. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index owns 12.86 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $2.15 billion. The company bought an additional 97880.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 2.78% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 25587.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 10.8 million shares valued at over $1.8 billion and representing 2.33% of the shares outstanding. American Funds New Perspective Fu bought 32057.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 5.39 million shares at a value of $899.54 million. American Funds New Perspective Fu now owns shares totaling to 1.16% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Zoetis Inc. (NYSE: ZTS) opened at $163.00, down -$4.49 from a prior closing price of $167.49. However, the script later moved the day high at 163.36, down -3.56%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -5.29% and 7.51% over the past three months. ZTS shares are trading 10.22% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -14.80% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $124.15 and touched a high of $201.32 over the same period. ZTS has an average intraday trading volume of 2.13 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -3.83%, -0.52%, and 0.79% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Zoetis Inc. (NYSE: ZTS) shares accounts for 94.50% of the company’s 465.56M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 44.77%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 49.28% and 27.76% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $77.61B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.77. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 35.94, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $4.50. The company has a PEG of 3.31 and a Quick Ratio of 1.60 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 1.79. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.87% over the week and 2.17% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Zoetis Inc. (ZTS) will achieve an EPS of $1.05 for the current quarter, $1.2 for the next quarter and $5.33 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.01 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.18. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $1 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 5.20%, and 12.30% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 10.87% over the next five years, compared to 15.50% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 16 brokerage firm advisors rate Zoetis Inc. (ZTS) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.70. Specifically, 12 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 1 of the 16 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the ZTS, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Piper Sandler stated their Overweight rating for the stock in a research note on July 12, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $205. Morgan Stanley coverage for the Zoetis Inc. (ZTS) stock in a research note released on November 18, 2021 offered a Overweight rating with a price target of $40. Morgan Stanley was of a view on November 18, 2021 that the stock is Overweight, while Credit Suisse gave the stock Outperform rating on August 05, 2021, issuing a price target of $206. Raymond James on their part issued Mkt Perform rating on July 16, 2021.
