Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) Shares Bought by Advisory Alpha LLC

Advisory Alpha LLC increased its stake in Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) by 7.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,481 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 253 shares during the period. Advisory Alpha LLC’s holdings in Zoetis were worth $567,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Zoetis Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE:ZTS opened at $166.64 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $75.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.89. Zoetis Inc. has a one year low of $144.80 and a one year high of $200.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 2.27 and a current ratio of 3.69. 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 announced 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. Zoetis had a return on equity of 51.98% and a net margin of 26.55%. The company had revenue of $2.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.29 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.36 EPS. Zoetis’s quarterly revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Zoetis Inc. will post 5.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Zoetis Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This is a positive change from Zoetis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 21st. Zoetis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.59%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Zoetis 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.