Boston, MA 07\/04\/2014 (wallstreetpr) \u2013\u00a0<\/b>Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) <\/b>has seen its shares up significantly this year. The shares are up more than 17 percent since the beginning of 2014 and analysts believe the stock will rise more this year to touch $94.91 per share. The shares currently trade in the region of $87.90.<\/p>\n
Following the impressive gain in the stock, executives in the company have been reducing their stake in what appears to be attempts to book profits. However, it is worth noting that even as insiders book profits through stock sales, they are keeping a significant amount of their holding in the stock, which demonstrates a collective view that they expect the stock to continue gaining.<\/p>\n
Latest sellers<\/b><\/p>\n
In the latest SEC filing, the company revealed that CEO John C. Martin and EVP Gregg H. Alton reduced their shareholding stake in the company. The CEO Martin sold 140,625 shares on the open market at an average price of $84.84 to generate more than $11.9 million in proceeds. Despite the big sale, the CEO still retains more than 4.4 million shares in the company in direct holding, which are worth about $376 million.<\/p>\n
On his part, Alton unloaded 33,000 shares at an average price of $84.12 in an open market transaction to generate about $2.8 million in proceeds. The transaction saw the EVP reduce his stake in the company to about 126,694 shares, which have an estimated value of $10.7 million.<\/p>\n
Positive prospects<\/b><\/p>\n
Although insiders have been selling shares of Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD), Wall Street maintains a Buy recommendation on the stock.<\/p>\n
The company is riding high on the wave generated by its highly prescribed hepatitis C drug that costs about $84,000 per patient. The drug is not only making good sales but also has a good profit margin. As such, the company is experiencing double boost in its revenue and bottom line. Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) had revenue of $5 billion against the consensus estimate of $3.8 billion. Earnings came in at $1.48 per share compared with the estimated $0.85.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Boston, MA 07\/04\/2014 (wallstreetpr) \u2013\u00a0Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) has seen its shares up significantly this year. The shares are up more than 17 percent since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":25597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_2902945987_2902945987":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[1978,1522],"stock_ticker":[],"class_list":["post-27052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-gilead-sciences-inc-nasdaqgild","tag-nasdaqgild","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n