How to buy Gilead Sciences shares

Gilead Sciences, Inc (GILD) is a leading drug manufacturers-general business with stocks listed in the US. It opened the day at US$66.02 after a previous close of US$65.77. During the day the price has varied from a low of USD65.87 to a high of USD67.08. The latest price was USD66.87 (25 minute delay). Gilead Sciences is listed on the NASDAQ. All prices are listed in US Dollars.

How to buy shares in Gilead Sciences

1. Compare share trading platforms. To buy shares in a US company from Australia you'll need to find a trading platform that offers access to US stock markets. If you're just starting out, look for a platform with low brokerage and foreign exchange fees.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and tax file number. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Gilead Sciences. Find the share by name or ticker symbol: GILD. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Gilead Sciences reaches your desired price. To spread out your risk, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of US$62.79, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimise risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Gilead Sciences, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Gilead Sciences. Optimise your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

Gilead Sciences share price

Use our graph to track the performance of GILD stocks over time.

Gilead Sciences shares at a glance

• Live prices
• Key figures

Information last updated 2021-04-16.

Open	US$66.02
High	US$67.08
Low	US$65.87
Close	US$66.87
Previous close	US$65.77
Change	US$1.1
Change %	1.6725%
Volume	7,124,507

Information last updated 2021-04-15.

52-week range	US$55.9038 - US$82.1581
50-day moving average	US$64.3191
200-day moving average	US$62.5759
Target price	US$74.68
PE ratio	671.1224
Dividend yield	US$2.72 (4.17%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	US$0.098

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The value of your investments can fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you invested. Past performance is no indication of future results.

Is it a good time to buy Gilead Sciences stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Gilead Sciences, Inc by TradingView

Gilead Sciences price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the last close of $66.87

1 week (2021-04-09)	2.70%
1 month (2021-03-17)	3.80%
3 months (2021-01-15)	5.59%
6 months (2020-10-16)	7.85%

1 year (2020-04-17)	-20.38%
2 years (2019-04-17)	5.72%
3 years (2018-04-17)	-11.40%
5 years (2016-04-15)	-31.97%

Is Gilead Sciences under- or over-valued?

Valuing Gilead Sciences stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Gilead Sciences's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Gilead Sciences's P/E ratio

Gilead Sciences's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 671x. In other words, Gilead Sciences shares trade at around 671x recent earnings.

That's relatively high compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The high P/E ratio could mean that investors are optimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're over-valued.

Gilead Sciences's PEG ratio

Gilead Sciences's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 0.4562. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Gilead Sciences's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Gilead Sciences's EBITDA

Gilead Sciences's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is US$12.7 billion (£9.2 billion).

The EBITDA is a measure of a Gilead Sciences's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Gilead Sciences financials

Revenue TTM	US$24.7 billion
Operating margin TTM	45.43%
Gross profit TTM	US$21 billion
Return on assets TTM	10.78%
Return on equity TTM	0.44%
Profit margin	0.5%
Book value	14.515
Market capitalisation	US$82.8 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Gilead Sciences shares

There are currently 23.4 million Gilead Sciences shares held short by investors – that's known as Gilead Sciences's "short interest". This figure is 4.1% up from 22.5 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Gilead Sciences shares can be evaluated.

Gilead Sciences's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Gilead Sciences's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Gilead Sciences shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Gilead Sciences shares traded daily (recently around 8.6 million). Gilead Sciences's SIR currently stands at 2.71. In other words for every 100,000 Gilead Sciences shares traded daily on the market, roughly 2710 shares are currently held short.

However Gilead Sciences's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Gilead Sciences shares, or, against the total number of tradable Gilead Sciences shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Gilead Sciences's short interest could be expressed as 0.02% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Gilead Sciences shares in existence, roughly 20 shares are currently held short) or 0.0186% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Gilead Sciences shares, roughly 19 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Gilead Sciences.

Find out more about how you can short Gilead Sciences stock.

Gilead Sciences's environmental, social and governance track record

Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like Gilead Sciences.

When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.

Gilead Sciences's total ESG risk score

Total ESG risk: 22.15

Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and Gilead Sciences's overall score of 22.15 (as at 12/31/2018) is pretty good – landing it in it in the 31st percentile of companies rated in the same sector.

ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like Gilead Sciences is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).

Gilead Sciences's environmental score

Environmental score: 0.53/100

Gilead Sciences's environmental score of 0.53 puts it squarely in the 2nd percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Gilead Sciences is a leader in its sector terms of its environmental impact, and exposed to a lower level of risk.

Gilead Sciences's social score

Social score: 12.97/100

Gilead Sciences's social score of 12.97 puts it squarely in the 2nd percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Gilead Sciences is a leader in its sector when it comes to taking good care of its workforce and the communities it impacts.

Gilead Sciences's governance score

Governance score: 7.65/100

Gilead Sciences's governance score puts it squarely in the 2nd percentile of companies rated in the same sector. That could suggest that Gilead Sciences is a leader in its sector when it comes to responsible management and strategy, and exposed to a lower level of risk.

Gilead Sciences's controversy score

Controversy score: 2/5

ESG scores also evaluate any incidences of controversy that a company has been involved in. Gilead Sciences scored a 2 out of 5 for controversy – the second-highest score possible, reflecting that Gilead Sciences has, for the most part, managed to keep its nose clean.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) summary

Gilead Sciences, Inc was last rated for ESG on: 2019-01-01.

Total ESG score	22.15
Total ESG percentile	30.98
Environmental score	0.53
Environmental score percentile	2
Social score	12.97
Social score percentile	2
Governance score	7.65
Governance score percentile	2
Level of controversy	2

Gilead Sciences share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 38.79% of net profits

Recently Gilead Sciences has paid out, on average, around 38.79% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 4.35% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Gilead Sciences shareholders could enjoy a 4.35% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Gilead Sciences's case, that would currently equate to about $2.72 per share.

While Gilead Sciences's payout ratio might seem fairly standard, it's worth remembering that Gilead Sciences may be investing much of the rest of its net profits in future growth.

Gilead Sciences's most recent dividend payout was on 29 March 2021. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 11 March 2021 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Gilead Sciences's shares ever split?

Gilead Sciences's shares were split on a 2:1 basis on 27 January 2013. So if you had owned 1 share the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 2 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Gilead Sciences shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 50% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Gilead Sciences shares which in turn could have impacted Gilead Sciences's share price.

Gilead Sciences share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Gilead Sciences's shares have ranged in value from as little as US$55.9038 up to US$82.1581. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while Gilead Sciences's is 0.4126. This would suggest that Gilead Sciences's shares are less volatile than average (for this exchange).

Gilead Sciences overview

Gilead Sciences, Inc., a research-based biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes medicines in the areas of unmet medical need in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company provides Biktarvy, Genvoya, Descovy, Odefsey, Truvada, Complera/ Eviplera, Stribild, and Atripla products for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection; Veklury, an injection for intravenous use, for the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019; and Epclusa, Harvoni, Vosevi, Vemlidy, and Viread for the treatment of liver diseases. It also offers Yescarta, Tecartus, Trodelvy, and Zydelig products for the treatment of hematology, oncology, and cell therapy patients. In addition, the company provides Letairis, an oral formulation for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension; Ranexa, an oral formulation for the treatment of chronic angina; and AmBisome, a liposomal formulation for the treatment of serious invasive fungal infections. Gilead Sciences, Inc. has collaboration agreements with Arcus Biosciences, Inc.; Pionyr; Tizona; Tango Therapeutics, Inc.; Jounce Therapeutics, Inc.; Galapagos; Janssen; Japan Tobacco, Inc.; Gadeta; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; Merck; and Novo Nordisk A/S. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Foster City, California.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Gilead Sciences is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 0.092% of Gilead Sciences shares are held by insiders and 79.432% by institutions.

• When does the fiscal year end for Gilead Sciences?

  Gilead Sciences's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is Gilead Sciences based?

  Gilead Sciences's address is: 333 Lakeside Drive, Foster City, CA, United States, 94404

• What is Gilead Sciences's ISIN number?

  Gilead Sciences's international securities identification number is: US3755581036

• What is Gilead Sciences's CUSIP number?

  Gilead Sciences's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 375558103