GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.39

GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 30th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.3928 per share by the pharmaceutical company on Thursday, January 9th. This represents a $1.57 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. This is a positive change from GSK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38.

GSK has decreased its dividend by an average of 18.2% per year over the last three years. GSK has a dividend payout ratio of 34.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect GSK to earn $4.41 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.54 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 34.9%.

GSK Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GSK opened at $36.74 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.05. The stock has a market cap of $76.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.86, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. GSK has a 12 month low of $33.67 and a 12 month high of $45.92.

GSK (NYSE:GSK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The pharmaceutical company reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $9.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. GSK had a net margin of 7.97% and a return on equity of 51.23%. As a group, analysts predict that GSK will post 4.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Plc Gsk bought 2,791,930 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 27th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $8.00 per share, with a total value of $22,335,440.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now directly owns 16,775,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $134,205,528. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 10.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on GSK shares. Argus raised GSK to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group lowered shares of GSK from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 8th. Barclays raised shares of GSK to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Guggenheim lowered shares of GSK from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, GSK currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.00.

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.