Investors Buy High Volume of GSK Call Options (NYSE:GSK)

GSK PLC Sponsored ADR (NYSE:GSK) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Investors acquired 122,136 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 1,570% compared to the average volume of 7,312 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on GSK. Cfra set a $53.00 target price on GSK in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of GSK in a report on Monday, October 27th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of GSK from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of GSK from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, GSK presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $44.13.

GSK Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GSK traded up $0.15 during trading on Thursday, reaching $48.22. The company had a trading volume of 2,960,557 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,164,986. GSK has a twelve month low of $31.72 and a twelve month high of $48.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $97.90 billion, a PE ratio of 13.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.50. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $43.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $40.34. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07.

GSK (NYSE:GSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The pharmaceutical company reported $1.48 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.26 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.21 billion. GSK had a return on equity of 51.07% and a net margin of 17.16%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.50 earnings per share. GSK has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.730-4.810 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that GSK will post 4.14 earnings per share for the current year.

GSK Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.4171 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 14th. This represents a $1.67 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. GSK’s payout ratio is 46.05%.

Institutional Trading of GSK

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new stake in shares of GSK in the 4th quarter valued at about $528,000. Stephens Inc. AR raised its stake in GSK by 9.9% during the first quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 40,570 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,572,000 after buying an additional 3,638 shares in the last quarter. Sigma Planning Corp lifted its holdings in GSK by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 36,416 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,411,000 after buying an additional 1,597 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. grew its position in shares of GSK by 12.1% in the 1st quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 358,482 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $13,888,000 after acquiring an additional 38,779 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cable Hill Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of GSK in the 1st quarter worth approximately $279,000. 15.74% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.