Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Increases Position in GSK plc (NYSE:GSK)

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC grew its position in GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) by 12.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,153,616 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock after purchasing an additional 446,568 shares during the quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC owned approximately 0.20% of GSK worth $140,475,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Indiana Trust & Investment Management Co lifted its holdings in GSK by 200.0% during the 4th quarter. Indiana Trust & Investment Management Co now owns 750 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Crews Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in GSK during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. boosted its holdings in GSK by 195.5% in the fourth quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 789 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 522 shares in the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. increased its stake in GSK by 73.8% in the third quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 711 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 302 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sierra Ocean LLC acquired a new stake in GSK during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. 15.74% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

GSK Price Performance

Shares of GSK opened at $36.49 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.78. GSK plc has a fifty-two week low of $31.72 and a fifty-two week high of $45.93. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.59. The company has a market capitalization of $75.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.56.

GSK (NYSE:GSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The pharmaceutical company reported $0.59 earnings per share 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%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that GSK plc will post 4.14 earnings per share for the current year.

GSK Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be paid a $0.3932 dividend. This is a boost from GSK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.57 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. GSK’s payout ratio is currently 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.