First Hawaiian Bank Cuts Stock Position in Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS)

First Hawaiian Bank lessened its holdings in shares of Zoetis Inc. (NYSE:ZTS - Free Report) by 62.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,706 shares of the company's stock after selling 4,567 shares during the quarter. First Hawaiian Bank's holdings in Zoetis were worth $441,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. LPL Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Zoetis by 2.9% during the second quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 341,259 shares of the company's stock valued at $59,161,000 after purchasing an additional 9,476 shares in the last quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. raised its stake in Zoetis by 21.7% during the second quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 9,529 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,652,000 after buying an additional 1,698 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its stake in Zoetis by 3.6% during the second quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 37,761 shares of the company's stock valued at $6,546,000 after buying an additional 1,320 shares during the last quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Zoetis in the second quarter worth $474,000. Finally, Leelyn Smith LLC grew its stake in shares of Zoetis by 4.9% in the second quarter. Leelyn Smith LLC now owns 20,780 shares of the company's stock worth $3,602,000 after acquiring an additional 972 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.80% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Zoetis from $210.00 to $180.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Leerink Partnrs raised Zoetis to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. UBS Group started coverage on Zoetis in a research report on Monday, December 9th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $196.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Zoetis from $225.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Leerink Partners started coverage on shares of Zoetis in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They set an "outperform" rating and a $215.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $211.89.

Zoetis Stock Performance

ZTS traded down $1.72 during trading on Friday, hitting $163.30. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,179,470 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,470,128. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $171.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $180.29. The firm has a market cap of $73.68 billion, a PE ratio of 30.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.89. Zoetis Inc. has a one year low of $144.80 and a one year high of $200.53. The company has a quick ratio of 2.27, a current ratio of 3.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26.

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

Zoetis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 21st will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.22%. This is an increase from Zoetis's previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, January 21st. Zoetis's dividend payout ratio is presently 37.59%.

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.