Zoetis Inc. $ZTS Stock Purchased by Markel Group Inc.

Key Points

• Markel Group increased its Zoetis stake by 542.5% in the third quarter, buying 359,101 shares to hold 425,296 shares valued at about $29.7 million.
• Analyst sentiment is mostly neutral: 12 analysts rate Zoetis Hold, six Buy and one Sell, with a consensus price target of $93.79.
• Zoetis slightly beat quarterly EPS expectations at $1.87, though revenue fell 0.2% year over year and missed estimates. The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.53 per share, an annualized yield of about 2.5%.

Markel Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS - Free Report) by 542.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 425,296 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 359,101 shares during the period. Markel Group Inc. owned 0.10% of Zoetis worth $29,698,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wealthfront Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Zoetis by 80.2% in the 2nd quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 76,113 shares of the company's stock valued at $5,469,000 after buying an additional 33,873 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Zoetis by 16.7% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 165,570 shares of the company's stock worth $19,572,000 after buying an additional 23,687 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management LLC Investment Advisor increased its holdings in Zoetis by 21.5% during the second quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management LLC Investment Advisor now owns 3,557,436 shares of the company's stock worth $255,637,000 after buying an additional 629,974 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its position in Zoetis by 9.9% during the first quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 3,004,200 shares of the company's stock worth $355,126,000 after acquiring an additional 269,610 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Munich Reinsurance Co Stock Corp in Munich raised its position in Zoetis by 2,448.6% during the first quarter. Munich Reinsurance Co Stock Corp in Munich now owns 23,804 shares of the company's stock worth $2,814,000 after acquiring an additional 22,870 shares in the last quarter. 92.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ZTS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Zoetis from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 27th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Zoetis from $104.00 to $94.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Zoetis in a research note on Friday, October 16th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $74.00 price objective on the stock. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Zoetis from a "sell (d)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price 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. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Zoetis currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $93.79.

Zoetis Stock Performance

ZTS opened at $83.19 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 3.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.87. Zoetis Inc. has a 12-month low of $68.77 and a 12-month high of $132.49. The business has a 50 day moving average of $75.27 and a 200-day moving average of $93.22. The stock has a market cap of $34.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.71, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.67.

Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.02. Zoetis had a return on equity of 74.89% and a net margin of 27.49%. The business had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.76 EPS. The firm's revenue was down .2% compared to the same quarter last year. Zoetis has set its FY 2026 guidance at 6.150-6.250 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Zoetis Inc. will post 6.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Zoetis Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 30th will be given a dividend of $0.53 per share. This represents a $2.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 30th. Zoetis's payout ratio is 34.93%.

About Zoetis

Zoetis Inc is a global animal health company that develops, manufactures and markets medicines, vaccines, diagnostics, genetic products and related services for animals. Its offerings support the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease in both companion animals, including dogs, cats and horses, and livestock such as cattle, swine, poultry and fish.

The company's product portfolio includes prescription medicines, parasiticides, vaccines, veterinary diagnostics and animal genetics.

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