Brandes Investment Partners LP Raises Position in GSK plc (NYSE:GSK)

Brandes Investment Partners LP raised its holdings in shares of GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,145,512 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 61,099 shares during the quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP owned about 0.06% of GSK worth $44,191,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of GSK by 61.9% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 70,048 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,697,000 after purchasing an additional 26,793 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning increased its holdings in shares of GSK by 4.8% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 203,246 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $7,825,000 after buying an additional 9,322 shares during the last quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of GSK during the 2nd quarter valued at $988,000. Drucker Wealth 3.0 LLC bought a new stake in shares of GSK during the 2nd quarter worth $3,164,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in GSK by 103.4% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 26,363 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,015,000 after acquiring an additional 13,403 shares in the last quarter. 15.74% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Berenberg Bank upgraded GSK to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on GSK from $52.50 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Citigroup raised GSK to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 24th. UBS Group downgraded shares of GSK from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of GSK to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Four research 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 currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $50.00.

GSK Price Performance

Shares of GSK stock opened at $40.71 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.54. GSK plc has a one year low of $33.67 and a one year high of $45.92. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.54 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $84.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.66.

GSK (NYSE:GSK) last issued its earnings results 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 company 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%. Analysts forecast that GSK plc will post 4.17 EPS for the current year.

GSK Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.3843 per share. This is a positive change from GSK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. This represents a $1.54 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 16th. GSK’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.71%.

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.