First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Reduces Stake in Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS)

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. decreased its stake in shares of Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) by 8.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,864 shares of the company’s stock after selling 969 shares during the period. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Zoetis were worth $1,770,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ZTS. Pensionfund Sabic boosted its holdings in Zoetis by 55.6% in 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 during the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Zoetis in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,764,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Zoetis by 10.6% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,916,539 shares of the company’s stock valued at $569,834,000 after buying an additional 279,092 shares during the last quarter. Simplify Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Zoetis in the third quarter valued at about $11,684,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Zoetis by 38.3% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,065,514 shares of the company’s stock valued at $336,266,000 after acquiring an additional 572,511 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Zoetis Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of ZTS opened at $168.63 on Monday. Zoetis Inc. has a 52 week low of $144.80 and a 52 week high of $200.53. The firm has a market cap of $76.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.89. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $170.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $179.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 2.27 and a current ratio of 3.69.

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

Zoetis Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 21st will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. This is a boost from Zoetis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 21st. Zoetis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.59%.

About Zoetis

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.