Gilead Sciences, Inc. (GILD)

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Gilead) is a multinational biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops and commercializes therapeutics to advance the care of patients suffering from life-threatening diseases. The company draws its revenues from nine approved products and marketing operations in twelve countries. Its pipe-line consists of several drugs in various stages of clinical and pre-clinical trails.

The company has reported robust revenue growth of 49% in fiscal 2006. Its HIV franchise which contributed about 70% to the top-line grew at 53% and brought home $ 2.13 billion dollars. Its royalty income almost doubled on back of higher sales of Roche’s Tamiflu. With Avian flu scare on the horizon, governments and institutions have started stock-piling Tamiflu.

Gilead’s strength lies in its superior product offering which offers more convenience and greater efficacy. Its drug Atripla represents the first single-pill, once-daily, formulation of a complete cocktail of HIV medications. Atripla is likely to boost an already robust HIV franchise of the company. The sales of tamiflu are also expected to be firm going forward. Besides Ambrisentan (Phase III) meant for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and GS9147 (Phase II), novel class of oral HIV medication is likely to significantly contribute to the revenues going forward.

The risks Gilead faces would be the generic risks associated with research and development and regulators. As it core strength remains HIV franchise any adverse development on that front would result in down tick for the stock. However at the end of the day it is a resource rich company with stable products and strong cash flows. Its valuation seems to be reasonable taking into account its growth prospects. Its investor profile also seems to be strong with institutional investors holding around 90% of the outstanding shares. Thus this stock might attract buying from portfolio investors and hence may outperform.

buying ahead of earnings is always a risk, however, many of the top healthcare stocks are raising guidance and beating earnings this quarter. I believe GILD will continue its upward trend and beat earnings. Additionally, you are seeing a lot of big money rotating into the pharma and biotech sector. Remember hedge funds, mutual funds, pension funds, are trying to make money and there are very few industries that are working. You may ask what about commodities? Don't you think most of these funds had been piling into commodities months or years ago and are already overexposed there from a weighted average standpoint (eg. commodity stocks up, other stocks down)....

I believe the sell off in commodities the first 2 weeks of this quarter and the earnings beats and upward guidance of the largest and best healthcare stocks is a big tell. Several of the big healthcare CEOs have talked about global demand, additionally, if the US is really weakening this much do you really think the world is decoupled from our economy? I say no and that the global slowdown will put a pause on the upward trajectory of commodity prices. I do like Coal only because we need to get away from foreign oil and people are going to figure away to make this work with new technology

Top down investing works.. GILD is in the right industry at the right time

GILD is a solidly run biotech with an outstanding balance sheet and industry leading aids franchise. This company has substantially outperformed the market and should continue to outperform.

From a small cap in the mid 90s to a large pharma player today this company has always shown it knows how to stay ahead of the game. Just look at its HIV franchise - Gilead currently produces the ONLY once a day HIV pill on the market. Already approved and in use here, it was also approved in the EU in December. This drug keeps HIV at undetectable levels in nearly 85% of those who take it. There is simply nothing to compete with it produced by any other company. As a doctor I know I would never prescribe anything else the first time around. I know this is the consensus of essentially all doctors as well. While this drug will continue to dominate the market for at least the next 5 years (they have patent rights through 2021) GILD is already working on the next generation of HIV drugs. One that I particularly like is an integrase inhibitor. It's primary benefit is that if you are HIV- and your partner is HIV+ you should be able to have sex with your partner and stay HIV- if you are on this drug. This has huge ramifications around the world, especially in Sub-Sahara Africa where nearly 100% of cases are heterosexual. Why would I bring Africa up? Well, not that it directly affects the stock price, but GILD sells its drugs at manufacture cost to WHO, USAID, and other nonprofits as well as directly to African governments. It's great to see a company achieving so much success do so much good for those in need.

Amgen proved last year that you cannot be one dimensional as a bio/pharma company. No worries here. One of their older generation HIV drugs, tenovir, has been shown through extensive clinical and epidemiologic evidence to be highly effective against hepatitis B. It is expected to be approved by the FDA within a few months and will be the most effective drug on the market with an added kicker. In the drug's defining clinical trial, of the 2123 people who were on the drug 12-18 months not one person developed resistance to the drug. Why and will it hold up when it's in the general population I have no idea but that finding will push this drug to the forefront of the field making it the prescription of choice by doctors.

To further diversify, late in 2006 GILD acquired two companies that focus on respiratory and cardiopulmonary diseases. This year will be the first year in which results of these acquisitions will be recognized. GILD completed two phase III trials in 2007 from these companies - one for pulmonary arterial hypertension and the other for cystic fibrosis. Both of these drugs should be seeking approval in the USA and EU this year. The drugs were fast tracked by the FDA and if that's done usually you're money.

Finally, GILD is the patent owner of a drug known as tamiflu. Sold by GlaxoSmithKline, GILD's deal with them still enables them to see a fair share of the revenue. Why is this important? Well, the flu is ubiquitous and there's always a need for treatment. Tamiflu, though old by drug standards, is still the main prescription for the flu. Additionally, there have been some preliminary epidemiologic reports that have shown Tamiflu to have some effectiveness against the H5N1 avian flu. How effective, well no one really knows and I personally think not very, but governments around the world, particularly in developed countries, have kept tamiflu stockpiled just in case. Tamiflu only has a 3 year shelf life so governments must continually buy new stocks of the drug. This gives a steady stream of income to GILD, whether the avian flu comes to fruition or not.

I have owned this stock in my personal portfolio and always recommend it to friends+family. I'm doing the same to you folks! You won't get rich quick but based on past performance and future guidance you'll beat the market year in year out.

I bought this one to tap into the anti-viral industry, and Gilead looked like one of the bigger players. Done well by it, so far. Here's an amusing observation: compare the stock performance during the 90s, when it was run by Rumsfeld, to its performance in more recent years. Is it any wonder that the DoD has been such a mess? Maybe, even if we do want to apply sound business principles to running government, it should be *good* businesspeople applying those principles!

Has patents to two very important drugs eg Tamiflu and HIV antiretroviral drug which is likely to have strong demand in the future. Personnels such as Bill Gates have been pledging its support to distribute and provide easier access to these drugs in the future which mean great profits for Gilead.

I'm not much into purchasing the large and mega caps because a double is most likely the top of the run even for a growth machine like this one, and I'm also addicted to the longshots, but for the simple man just looking to turn a profit. Here she is. Buy $30 to $35 it most likely won't add very many points in your caps account as it slowly rises in dollars to the $50 or $60 range because caps does not register points from dollar gains but more so from daily S&P gains or losses compared to the stock.Bought the stock myself Feb 2005 for $17 and held it until may 2008 and it grew like grass. Even as big as it is,still growing like a tree.Beat est 6 out of the last 8 calls and estimates were increased 10/24/09. 2nd quarter 2009 rang in above 38% compared to last years 2nd quarter. P/E 17.00 Forward P/E 14.00 ,PEG 1.0 ,5 year sales growth 43% ,Gross Margins 77.00% , Net Profit Margins 37.00% ,ROE 47.00 Dept/Equity Ratio very low 0, Free cash flow superb. Company already upped full year 2009 guidance on both sales and revenue. I fully invested else where early part of this year and own no shares of this monster anymore,but for those still looking. You may want to give this one a hard look and catch it on the dip.

investopedia rec. great growth, good pipeline... HIV epidemic...

You won't be laughing when you contract bird flu from some bad KFC. GILD execs will be laughing though, all the way to the bank.

Gilead is a leader in HIV treatment and the company also receives royalties from Roche for Tamiflu, a treatment for
influenza. The new US administration is committed to increase spending for HIV diagnosis and treatment.
Generic drug competition will clearly weigh on pharma, but Gilead's superior market positioning is worth paying for.

Now a big biotech, company has a very strong and promising drug pipeline. I've held this company for about 9 years and continue to believe in it.

After reading the Motley write-up I did a little ho

Gild has new products being approved by the FDA.
This company is progressing and expanding
fairly rapidly.

This is my bio-tech pick.

Aids continues to dominate health concerns world-wide. GILD remains in forefront of the pharmacology
of AIDS battles.

Gilead Sciences, Inc. engages in the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapeutics for the treatment of life-threatening infectious diseases. The company continues to see double digit growth in EPS and revenues despite dismal economic conditions. They are cash flow positive and have a solid balance sheet. The stock is coming out of a three week consolidation where the price was stuck between $47 and $49. In the past two weeks the stock broke out of that tight range and is trading above $52. We expect that $50 will provide strong support while $53 is the next resistance level. Shares should trade above $55 in the coming periods. Set stops at $49.85.

FOSTER CITY, Calif. (AP) -- Biotech company Gilead Sciences Inc. on Tuesday said its board approved a two-for-one stock split.

Stockholders of record on May 24 will receive a dividend of one additional share for every one they own. Gilead's stock will begin trading at the post-split price on June 25.

Based on the total number of shares outstanding as of March 31, the stock split will increase the total number of shares outstanding to about 931.1 million out of the 1.4 billion shares currently authorized, the company said.

Companies typically execute splits when their shares have appreciated to a high nominal value. The split cuts the price in half by doubling the number of shares available, which may make the stock more affordable for private investors.

Shares of Gilead slid 14 cents to $82.82 on Tuesday.

Gilead is one of the earlier bio pharma firms using the best of both rather than identifying either as a drug company or a bioresearch firm. That places them in the center of a very productive area -- AIDs research, virus supression in areas such as flue, and liver-related diseases such a Hepatitus (AB&C). They've developed -- and continue to develop very sophisticated pipelines which treat large patient populations.

up and comer in biotec