18,094 Zoetis Inc. $ZTS Shares Bought by Alps Advisors Inc.

Key Points

• Alps Advisors increased its Zoetis stake by 60.8% in the third quarter, buying 18,094 shares and bringing its holdings to 47,850 shares, worth about $3.34 million.
• Zoetis beat quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, reporting adjusted EPS of $1.75 versus $1.51 expected and revenue of $2.39 billion versus $2.30 billion; revenue was down 1.3% year over year.
• Analyst sentiment was mostly neutral: 12 analysts rated the stock Hold, eight rated it Buy, and one rated it Sell, with a consensus price target of $101.25. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.53 per share.

Alps Advisors Inc. increased its position in Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS - Free Report) by 60.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 47,850 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 18,094 shares during the quarter. Alps Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Zoetis were worth $3,341,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Flossbach Von Storch SE acquired a new position in shares of Zoetis in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $302,601,000. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Zoetis by 10.8% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 39,430,181 shares of the company's stock worth $2,833,453,000 after acquiring an additional 3,845,869 shares during the last quarter. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Zoetis during the first quarter worth $286,660,000. Southpoint Capital Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Zoetis by 340.0% during the first quarter. Southpoint Capital Advisors LP now owns 2,200,000 shares of the company's stock valued at $260,062,000 after purchasing an additional 1,700,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Carmignac Gestion purchased a new stake in shares of Zoetis during the second quarter valued at $113,230,000. Institutional investors own 92.80% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ZTS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BNP Paribas Exane cut their price objective on Zoetis from $146.00 to $110.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Leerink Partners reduced their price target on shares of Zoetis from $95.00 to $80.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Zoetis from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Zoetis in a research note on Friday, October 16th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $74.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald set a $94.00 target price on Zoetis in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $101.25.

Zoetis Trading Up 3.5%

NYSE ZTS opened at $82.17 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 3.08, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.87. Zoetis Inc. has a 1-year low of $68.77 and a 1-year high of $132.49. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $75.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $92.39. The company has a market capitalization of $33.95 billion, a PE ratio of 13.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 0.67.

Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The company reported $1.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.24. Zoetis had a return on equity of 74.89% and a net margin of 27.49%. The firm had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.70 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was down 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Zoetis Inc. will post 6.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Zoetis Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.53 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 30th. This represents a $2.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Zoetis's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.05%.

Zoetis Profile

Zoetis is an animal health company that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets medicines, vaccines, diagnostic products and other services for animals. Its products support both companion animals, such as dogs and cats, and livestock, including cattle, pigs, poultry, sheep and fish.

The company's offerings include treatments for pain, infections and skin conditions, as well as vaccines, parasiticides, diagnostic tools and genetic testing services. Zoetis serves veterinarians, livestock producers and other animal health professionals around the world.

Zoetis originated as Pfizer's animal health business and became an independent public company in 2013.

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