Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co Increases Stake in GSK plc (NYSE:GSK)

Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co lifted its stake in shares of GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) by 14.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 14,823 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 1,818 shares during the period. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co’s holdings in GSK were worth $503,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sunbelt Securities Inc. increased its position in shares of GSK by 73.8% during the third quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 711 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 302 shares during the period. Indiana Trust & Investment Management Co grew its holdings in GSK by 200.0% in the fourth quarter. Indiana Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 750 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. Crews Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in GSK in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. grew its holdings in GSK by 195.5% in the fourth quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 789 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 522 shares during the period. Finally, Sierra Ocean LLC purchased a new stake in GSK in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 15.74% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of GSK in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. They issued an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Guggenheim cut shares of GSK from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of GSK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $53.00 to $39.50 in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of GSK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of GSK from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.25.

GSK Trading Down 2.6 %

NYSE:GSK opened at $37.37 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $34.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.30. GSK plc has a 52 week low of $31.72 and a 52 week high of $45.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market cap of $77.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.50, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.64.

GSK (NYSE:GSK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The pharmaceutical company reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.15. GSK had a net margin of 8.13% and a return on equity of 48.59%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that GSK plc will post 4.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

GSK Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 10th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st will be given a dividend of $0.3932 per share. This is an increase from GSK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. This represents a $1.57 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.21%. GSK’s dividend payout ratio is 98.74%.

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.