Viawealth LLC Has $490,000 Stock Holdings in GSK plc (NYSE:GSK)

Viawealth LLC lowered its stake in GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) by 23.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 14,490 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 4,357 shares during the period. Viawealth LLC’s holdings in GSK were worth $490,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its position in GSK by 70.1% in the 4th quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 25,261,660 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $854,349,000 after acquiring an additional 10,407,905 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of GSK by 8.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,008,928 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,185,885,000 after purchasing an additional 2,224,345 shares in the last quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD boosted its position in shares of GSK by 17.6% during the fourth quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD now owns 5,838,384 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $205,920,000 after buying an additional 874,004 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of GSK by 4.9% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 18,576,930 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $759,425,000 after buying an additional 870,449 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC raised its position in GSK by 30.8% in the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 3,542,143 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $144,803,000 after buying an additional 833,080 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 15.74% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on GSK in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. They set an “equal weight” rating for the company. StockNews.com raised shares of GSK from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.25.

GSK Stock Performance

NYSE GSK opened at $39.53 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $36.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $36.98. GSK plc has a 1 year low of $31.72 and a 1 year high of $45.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $81.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12.

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

GSK Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 10th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.3932 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. This is a positive change from GSK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.57 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.98%. GSK’s payout ratio is presently 98.74%.

GSK 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.