Gilead's latest investment plan has Wall Street smiling

The $84,000 price tag on Gilead Science's hepatitis C drug Sovaldi may not be good news for patients and payers, but it is sending glad tidings to Gilead stockholders. The company on Wednesday announced a $5 billion share buyback plan, its second such program since buying Pharmasset, the drug's developer, for $11 billion in 2011.

One area seemingly shirked given its newfound wealth is research and development. In its official quarterly report filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company reported that spending on R&D in the first quarter fell to 11.9% of $5 billion in sales, down from the 18.8% of $11.2 billion in sales it racked up in all of 2013.

The market liked those priorities. Shares of the Foster City, Calif.-based drug company on Wednesday rose 45 cents to $78.77. In after-hours trading, its shares were up another 37 cents. That represents a near quadrupling of its price since the Pharmasset acquisition.