GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) Short Interest Up 5.8% in June

GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) was the target of a large growth in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,400,000 shares, a growth of 5.8% from the May 31st total of 7,940,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 3,580,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.3 days. Approximately 0.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On GSK

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in GSK by 2,816.7% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 700 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 676 shares during the last quarter. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of GSK in the first quarter worth approximately $31,000. BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of GSK in the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of GSK in the fourth quarter worth $40,000. Finally, Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. bought a new stake in GSK during the 1st quarter valued at $49,000. 15.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

GSK Price Performance

GSK traded up $0.25 on Wednesday, reaching $38.46. The company had a trading volume of 1,348,863 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,635,354. GSK has a 52-week low of $33.67 and a 52-week high of $45.92. The company has a market cap of $79.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.87. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.26.

GSK (NYSE:GSK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The pharmaceutical company reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.15. GSK had a net margin of 14.62% and a return on equity of 51.54%. The firm had revenue of $9.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.98 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that GSK will post 4.11 EPS for the current year.

GSK Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.3762 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.91%. This is a positive change from GSK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. GSK’s payout ratio is 53.26%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on GSK. Berenberg Bank raised GSK to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 20th. Citigroup raised shares of GSK to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of GSK in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $47.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of GSK from $52.50 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, GSK has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.00.

GSK Company Profile

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.