GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) Short Interest Down 11.4% in September

GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) saw a large decline in short interest during the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 10,360,000 shares, a decline of 11.4% from the September 15th total of 11,690,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 3,820,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.7 days. Approximately 0.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

GSK Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of GSK stock traded down $0.08 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $39.13. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,777,705 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,724,496. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $81.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 0.65. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $41.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.30. GSK has a one year low of $33.67 and a one year high of $45.92.

GSK (NYSE:GSK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The pharmaceutical company reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $9.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. GSK had a net margin of 12.87% and a return on equity of 51.48%. Equities research analysts expect that GSK will post 4.14 EPS for the current year.

GSK Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were given a dividend of $0.3843 per share. This represents a $1.54 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.93%. This is a boost from GSK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. GSK’s payout ratio is presently 55.80%.

Insider Transactions at GSK

In other news, major shareholder Plc Gsk purchased 2,791,930 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 27th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $8.00 per share, with a total value of $22,335,440.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now directly owns 16,775,691 shares in the company, valued at approximately $134,205,528. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 10.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Register Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in GSK during the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of GSK in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $37,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in GSK during the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. PrairieView Partners LLC bought a new stake in GSK in the second quarter worth $47,000. Finally, Triad Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of GSK in the second quarter worth $49,000. Institutional investors own 15.74% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on GSK. Barclays upgraded shares of GSK to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Argus upgraded GSK to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Citigroup upgraded GSK to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 24th. UBS Group downgraded GSK from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of GSK from $52.50 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “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.