Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC Buys 962 Shares of GSK plc (NYSE:GSK)

Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC grew its position in shares of GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) by 5.4% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 18,780 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock after purchasing an additional 962 shares during the quarter. Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC’s holdings in GSK were worth $723,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GSK. JTC Employer Solutions Trustee Ltd boosted its holdings in GSK by 71.3% during the first quarter. JTC Employer Solutions Trustee Ltd now owns 21,141,012 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $909,063,000 after purchasing an additional 8,800,822 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new stake in GSK in the 4th quarter valued at about $92,281,000. Armistice Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of GSK by 670.5% during the 4th quarter. Armistice Capital LLC now owns 2,196,000 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $81,384,000 after buying an additional 1,911,000 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its stake in shares of GSK by 13.9% in the 2nd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 14,511,390 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $558,689,000 after buying an additional 1,773,020 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mondrian Investment Partners LTD grew its holdings in shares of GSK by 37.8% in the first quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD now owns 5,510,840 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $236,250,000 after acquiring an additional 1,512,442 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 15.74% of the company’s stock.

GSK Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE GSK opened at $41.65 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $86.32 billion, a PE ratio of 15.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.66. GSK plc has a one year low of $33.67 and a one year high of $45.92. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $41.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.71.

GSK (NYSE:GSK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The pharmaceutical company reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $9.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. GSK had a net margin of 12.87% and a return on equity of 51.48%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that GSK plc will post 4.15 EPS for the current year.

GSK Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 10th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th will be issued a $0.3843 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 16th. This is an increase from GSK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. This represents a $1.54 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.69%. GSK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.71%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Argus upgraded GSK to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Citigroup raised GSK to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 24th. UBS Group downgraded shares of GSK from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of GSK in a report on Thursday, May 30th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $47.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Barclays raised shares of GSK to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target 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.