Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC Reduces Stock Position in Zoetis Inc. $ZTS

Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC lessened its holdings in Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 124,617 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,449 shares during the quarter. Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC’s holdings in Zoetis were worth $18,234,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Zoetis by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,886,987 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,532,276,000 after buying an additional 330,823 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Zoetis by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,081,301 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,721,356,000 after buying an additional 95,294 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Zoetis in the 2nd quarter worth about $809,491,000. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its position in shares of Zoetis by 5.7% during the second quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 4,659,371 shares of the company’s stock worth $726,629,000 after acquiring an additional 250,829 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Zoetis by 113.0% during the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,761,920 shares of the company’s stock valued at $586,671,000 after acquiring an additional 1,995,491 shares in the last quarter. 92.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ZTS. Barclays assumed coverage on Zoetis in a research note on Monday, December 8th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $136.00 price objective on the stock. Weiss Ratings raised Zoetis from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley set a $160.00 price target on Zoetis in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. KeyCorp began coverage on shares of Zoetis in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. They issued a “sector weight” rating for the company. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Zoetis to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Zoetis currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $160.18.

Zoetis Trading Down 0.4%

Zoetis stock opened at $124.79 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.31, a quick ratio of 2.28 and a current ratio of 3.64. The stock has a market cap of $54.99 billion, a PE ratio of 21.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $123.21 and a two-hundred day moving average of $139.62. Zoetis Inc. has a one year low of $115.25 and a one year high of $177.40.

Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The company reported $1.70 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $2.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.42 billion. Zoetis had a return on equity of 57.19% and a net margin of 28.21%.The company’s revenue was up .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.58 earnings per share. Zoetis has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.300-6.400 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Zoetis Inc. will post 6.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Zoetis Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 20th will be issued a $0.53 dividend. This is an increase from Zoetis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 20th. Zoetis’s dividend payout ratio is 33.67%.

About Zoetis

Zoetis Inc (NYSE: ZTS) is a global animal health company that develops, manufactures and markets a broad portfolio of products and services for companion animals and livestock. The company’s offerings include pharmaceuticals, vaccines and biologics, parasiticides and anti-infectives, as well as diagnostic instruments, consumables and laboratory testing services. Zoetis serves the veterinary community, livestock producers and other animal-health customers with products designed to prevent, detect and treat disease and to support animal productivity and welfare.

Zoetis traces its roots to the animal health business of Pfizer and became an independent, publicly traded company following a 2013 separation and initial public offering.