True North Advisors LLC Takes Position in Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS)

True North Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 18,713 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,049,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pensionfund Sabic grew its stake in shares of Zoetis by 55.6% during the fourth quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 11,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,825,000 after acquiring an additional 4,000 shares in the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Zoetis in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,764,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Zoetis by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,916,539 shares of the company’s stock valued at $569,834,000 after purchasing an additional 279,092 shares in the last quarter. Simplify Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Zoetis during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $11,684,000. Finally, B&L Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Zoetis in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $563,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ZTS has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Zoetis to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Zoetis from $210.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Zoetis from $225.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Leerink Partners assumed coverage on Zoetis in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $215.00 price objective for the company. Finally, UBS Group started coverage on Zoetis in a research note on Monday, December 9th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $196.00 price objective on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Zoetis currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $211.89.

Zoetis Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of Zoetis stock opened at $166.64 on Thursday. Zoetis Inc. has a twelve month low of $144.80 and a twelve month high of $200.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $75.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.32, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 3.69, a quick ratio of 2.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $170.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $179.89.

Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $2.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.29 billion. Zoetis had a return on equity of 51.98% and a net margin of 26.55%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.36 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Zoetis Inc. will post 5.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Zoetis Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 21st will be given a $0.50 dividend. This is a boost from Zoetis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.20%. Zoetis’s dividend payout ratio is 37.59%.

Zoetis Company Profile

Zoetis Inc engages in the discovery, development, manufacture, and commercialization of animal health medicines, vaccines, and diagnostic products and services in the United States and internationally. The company commercializes products primarily across species, including livestock, such as cattle, swine, poultry, fish, and sheep and others; and companion animals comprising dogs, cats, and horses.