UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp Raises Stake in Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS)

UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp increased its stake in shares of Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) by 6.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 22,649 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,306 shares during the period. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp’s holdings in Zoetis were worth $3,926,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Zoetis by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 40,749,571 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,895,235,000 after acquiring an additional 414,605 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Zoetis by 31.0% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,716,681 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,707,262,000 after acquiring an additional 3,244,074 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Zoetis by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 9,064,158 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,788,988,000 after acquiring an additional 57,798 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Zoetis in the 4th quarter valued at about $980,646,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Zoetis by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,687,902 shares of the company’s stock valued at $812,695,000 after acquiring an additional 178,303 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ZTS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BTIG Research raised their price target on Zoetis from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Zoetis from $195.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Argus raised Zoetis to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Zoetis in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $217.11.

Zoetis Price Performance

ZTS opened at $189.20 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $181.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $174.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 3.45 and a quick ratio of 2.09. Zoetis Inc. has a 1 year low of $144.80 and a 1 year high of $201.92. The firm has a market cap of $85.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.45, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 0.88.

Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.31 billion. Zoetis had a return on equity of 50.67% and a net margin of 26.29%. Zoetis’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.41 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Zoetis Inc. will post 5.84 earnings per share for the current year.

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.