Signet Financial Management LLC Decreases Stake in GSK plc (NYSE:GSK)

Signet Financial Management LLC lowered its position in GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) by 2.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 10,668 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 291 shares during the quarter. Signet Financial Management LLC’s holdings in GSK were worth $395,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in GSK by 255.5% during the 2nd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 7,690,026 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $274,071,000 after buying an additional 5,526,736 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of GSK by 32.5% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,621,370 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $419,107,000 after acquiring an additional 2,362,274 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of GSK by 48.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,113,039 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $309,844,000 after acquiring an additional 2,316,204 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new stake in shares of GSK during the 4th quarter valued at about $73,232,000. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of GSK by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,099,513 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $656,107,000 after acquiring an additional 1,291,161 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 15.74% of the company’s stock.

GSK Stock Performance

NYSE:GSK opened at $39.95 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $42.04 and a 200 day moving average of $38.76. The company has a market capitalization of $82.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.27, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 0.64. GSK plc has a 1-year low of $33.33 and a 1-year high of $43.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

GSK (NYSE:GSK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The pharmaceutical company reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.79 billion. GSK had a return on equity of 51.45% and a net margin of 16.24%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that GSK plc will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

GSK Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a $0.3564 dividend. This is a boost from GSK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.43 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. GSK’s payout ratio is 52.82%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Guggenheim upgraded GSK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on GSK in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. They set an “equal weight” rating for the company. Citigroup upgraded GSK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded GSK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy”.

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.