GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) Short Interest Up 7.1% in September

GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) saw a significant growth in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 11,690,000 shares, a growth of 7.1% from the August 31st total of 10,910,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 3,610,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.2 days. Currently, 0.6% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GSK has been the subject of several research reports. Argus raised GSK to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on GSK from $52.50 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. UBS Group lowered GSK from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Citigroup raised GSK to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 24th. Finally, Barclays raised GSK to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $50.00.

GSK Price Performance

Shares of GSK stock opened at $40.30 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. The company has a market cap of $83.52 billion, a PE ratio of 14.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.66. The business has a 50 day moving average of $41.60 and a 200 day moving average of $41.57. GSK has a 52 week low of $33.67 and a 52 week high of $45.92.

GSK (NYSE:GSK) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The pharmaceutical company reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $9.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. GSK had a return on equity of 51.48% and a net margin of 12.87%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that GSK will post 4.17 earnings per share for the current year.

GSK Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be issued a $0.3843 dividend. This is an increase from GSK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 16th. This represents a $1.54 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.81%. GSK’s dividend payout ratio is 54.71%.

Insider Transactions at GSK

In other GSK news, major shareholder Plc Gsk acquired 2,791,930 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 27th. The stock was bought at an average price of $8.00 per share, with a total value of $22,335,440.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now owns 16,775,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $134,205,528. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 10.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On GSK

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in GSK in the first quarter worth $31,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of GSK during the second quarter valued at $37,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of GSK during the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. PrairieView Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of GSK during the second quarter valued at $47,000. Finally, Triad Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of GSK during the second quarter valued at $49,000. Institutional investors own 15.74% of the company’s stock.

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.