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Gilead Sciences (GILD) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Gilead Sciences (GILD - Free Report) closed at $70.25, marking a -0.07% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.96%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.61%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.04%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the HIV and hepatitis C drugmaker had gained 4.26% over the past month. This has outpaced the Medical sector's loss of 3.52% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.21% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Gilead Sciences as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, Gilead Sciences is projected to report earnings of $1.45 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 33.79%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $6.39 billion, down 13.89% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $8.07 per share and revenue of $26.48 billion. These totals would mark changes of +13.82% and +7.24%, respectively, from last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Gilead Sciences should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.08% higher. Gilead Sciences is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, Gilead Sciences is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 8.71. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 21.52, so we one might conclude that Gilead Sciences is trading at a discount comparatively.

It is also worth noting that GILD currently has a PEG ratio of 0.72. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.55 at yesterday's closing price.

The Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 160, putting it in the bottom 38% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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