GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) Short Interest Update

GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,350,000 shares, an increase of 52.2% from the March 31st total of 4,830,000 shares. Currently, 0.4% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 3,510,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.1 days.

Institutional Trading of GSK

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in shares of GSK by 2,816.7% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 700 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 676 shares during the last quarter. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of GSK during the first quarter worth $31,000. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of GSK by 271.8% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 885 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 647 shares during the last quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of GSK during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of GSK during the fourth quarter worth $40,000. Institutional investors own 15.74% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GSK shares. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on GSK in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. They set an “equal weight” rating for the company. Guggenheim upgraded shares of GSK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Citigroup upgraded shares of GSK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of GSK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, GSK has an average rating of “Moderate Buy”.

GSK Price Performance

GSK traded up $0.52 during trading on Monday, hitting $41.63. 4,241,531 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,448,776. GSK has a twelve month low of $33.33 and a twelve month high of $43.84. The company has a market cap of $86.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.83, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $41.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.01.

GSK (NYSE:GSK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 31st. The pharmaceutical company reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.76 by ($0.04). GSK had a net margin of 16.24% and a return on equity of 51.45%. The firm had revenue of $10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.79 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that GSK will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

GSK Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.3564 per share. This represents a $1.43 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.42%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. This is a boost from GSK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. GSK’s payout ratio is presently 52.82%.

About GSK

GSK plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the research, development, and manufacture of vaccines, and specialty and general medicines to prevent and treat disease in the United Kingdom, the United States, and internationally. It operates through two segments, Commercial Operations and Total R&D.