Argent Advisors Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in GSK plc (NYSE:GSK)

Argent Advisors Inc. boosted its position in GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) by 9.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 32,657 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,847 shares during the period. Argent Advisors Inc.’s holdings in GSK were worth $1,104,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GSK. United Bank boosted its position in GSK by 7.3% in the third quarter. United Bank now owns 25,785 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,054,000 after purchasing an additional 1,760 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its position in GSK by 20.0% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 500,495 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $20,460,000 after purchasing an additional 83,433 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in shares of GSK by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 53,348 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,181,000 after buying an additional 1,737 shares in the last quarter. Equity Investment Corp lifted its position in shares of GSK by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 3,496,254 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $142,927,000 after buying an additional 63,052 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pathstone Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of GSK by 12.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 246,614 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $10,086,000 after buying an additional 26,707 shares in the last quarter. 15.74% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

GSK Trading Up 2.1 %

GSK stock opened at $40.30 on Tuesday. GSK plc has a 1-year low of $31.72 and a 1-year high of $45.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.52. The company has a market capitalization of $83.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.35, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.58. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.99.

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

GSK Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.3932 per share. This represents a $1.57 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.90%. This is a boost from GSK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 21st. GSK’s dividend payout ratio is 98.74%.

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.