One of the most popular stocks in America has lost almost half its value in 2 years

Reuters/Kimberly White

Dr. Albert Liu, director of HIV Prevention Intervention Studies at San Francisco’s Department of Public Health, holds a study pill for his Project T study in San Francisco, California.

According to TD Ameritrade, Gilead Sciences has been one of the most popular stocks with retail investors for years.

Since 2014, the pharmaceutical and biotech company has constantly popped up in TD Ameritrade’s top 10 most commonly owned stocks by retail investors.

Gilead Sciences reported another disappointing quarter after Tuesday’s close, and shares are down about 1.5% on Wednesday. Shares of have lost about 44% since the summer of 2015.

The pharmaceutical giant reported earnings of $2.05 per share on revenue of $6.51 billion. That missed the $2.10 and $6.63 billion that Wall Street analysts were expecting, according to Bloomberg.

Many analysts and investors complain that Gilead is a “one trick pony,” relying too heavily on it’s signature drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni, which can cure Hepatitis-C in just eight weeks, but cost almost $100,000.

Analyst such as Geoffrey Meacham at Barclays, are pushing Gilead to make one or more major acquisitions to fill out their pipeline and diversify past Hepatitis-C. In a letter to management Meacham said, Gilead needs to make “transformational or even incremental transaction.”

“We admire Gilead’s discipline, especially through the valuation peaks and troughs in the biotech/pharma sector, but too much patience has put immense pressure on Gilead shares,” Meachem wrote. “By far and away, our fear is that as quarterly operating cash flow declines … so does Gilead’s capacity to do a meaningful transaction.”

President Trump’s constant call for reduced drug prices has not been helpful to Gilead to say the least. Gilead is considered a poster child for high drug prices.

John F. Milligan took over as CEO from John C. Martin in March of 2016. Milligan is under tremendous pressure to turn Gilead around as the stock soared by about 8,000% under his predecessor.

Click here for a real-time Gilead chart.