Ebb & Flow

Gilead (GILD) gave the Street another upside surprise for the first quarter, but the EPS uplift looks to have come from less spending on R&D, rather than unexpectedly high revenue. Indeed, while GILD's quarterly revenue exceeded $1 billion for the first time, it also matched the consensus estimates.

Whatever the reason, GILD was up $3.97 to $82.39 on the week, adding almost $2 billion to its market cap to reach $38.3 billion (see "Upside Surprises"). ...