Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Decreases Stake in Zoetis Inc. $ZTS

Key Points

• Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD has reduced its stake in Zoetis Inc. by 20.2% in the first quarter, owning approximately 1.46 million shares valued at $241.18 million.
• Vanguard Group Inc. and Polen Capital Management LLC have increased their holdings in Zoetis, now owning 41.56 million and 8.80 million shares respectively.
• Zoetis reported $1.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the last quarter, surpassing analyst expectations, and forecasted a full-year EPS guidance of 6.30-6.40 for FY 2025.

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lowered its position in shares of Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS - Free Report) by 20.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,464,816 shares of the company's stock after selling 371,537 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned about 0.33% of Zoetis worth $241,183,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Zoetis by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,556,164 shares of the company's stock worth $6,842,222,000 after acquiring an additional 189,287 shares during the period. Polen Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Zoetis by 17.6% in the 1st quarter. Polen Capital Management LLC now owns 8,796,847 shares of the company's stock worth $1,448,401,000 after acquiring an additional 1,313,653 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Zoetis by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,504,902 shares of the company's stock worth $1,071,032,000 after acquiring an additional 78,508 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Zoetis by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,146,024 shares of the company's stock worth $847,293,000 after acquiring an additional 109,791 shares during the period. Finally, Unisphere Establishment boosted its holdings in Zoetis by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Unisphere Establishment now owns 4,800,000 shares of the company's stock worth $782,064,000 after acquiring an additional 325,000 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.80% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Roxanne Lagano sold 652 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.00, for a total transaction of $110,840.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 15,129 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,571,930. This represents a 4.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

Zoetis Stock Performance

ZTS stock opened at $156.3180 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.76, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The firm has a market cap of $69.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.88. Zoetis Inc. has a 12-month low of $139.70 and a 12-month high of $200.33. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $153.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $158.52.

Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $1.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $2.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.41 billion. Zoetis had a return on equity of 56.90% and a net margin of 27.83%.The business's revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.56 EPS. Zoetis has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.300-6.400 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Zoetis Inc. will post 6.07 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ZTS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Leerink Partnrs cut Zoetis from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Leerink Partners cut Zoetis from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and reduced their target price for the company from $180.00 to $155.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Zoetis from $189.00 to $170.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Zoetis from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut Zoetis from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and reduced their target price for the company from $165.00 to $160.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $202.43.

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.

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