Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS) Shares Purchased by Blue Trust Inc.

Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in shares of Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS - Free Report) by 85.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 9,353 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 4,301 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.'s holdings in Zoetis were worth $1,524,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Pensionfund Sabic increased its holdings in Zoetis by 55.6% in the 4th quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 11,200 shares of the company's stock worth $1,825,000 after buying an additional 4,000 shares in the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Zoetis in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,764,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Zoetis by 10.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,916,539 shares of the company's stock valued at $569,834,000 after purchasing an additional 279,092 shares during the last quarter. Simplify Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Zoetis during the third quarter valued at approximately $11,684,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in Zoetis by 38.3% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,065,514 shares of the company's stock worth $336,266,000 after purchasing an additional 572,511 shares during the last quarter. 92.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on ZTS. Leerink Partners started coverage on Zoetis in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They set an "outperform" rating and a $215.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Zoetis from $248.00 to $243.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Leerink Partnrs raised shares of Zoetis to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Zoetis from $210.00 to $180.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, UBS Group started coverage on shares of Zoetis in a report on Monday, December 9th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $196.00 target price for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $215.00.

Zoetis Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of Zoetis stock traded down $1.90 on Friday, hitting $170.81. 2,630,702 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,468,532. Zoetis Inc. has a 52 week low of $144.80 and a 52 week high of $200.53. The company has a current ratio of 3.69, a quick ratio of 2.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $169.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $179.49. The company has a market cap of $77.06 billion, a PE ratio of 32.11, a PEG ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.89.

Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.12. Zoetis had a net margin of 26.55% and a return on equity of 51.98%. The business had revenue of $2.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.29 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.36 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Zoetis Inc. will post 5.9 EPS for the current year.

Zoetis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This is a positive change from Zoetis's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.17%. Zoetis's payout ratio is presently 37.59%.

Zoetis Profile

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.