GSK (NYSE:GSK) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

Shares of GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $38.17, but opened at $36.50. GSK shares last traded at $36.52, with a volume of 1,950,167 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Argus upgraded shares of GSK to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays upgraded shares of GSK to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. UBS Group downgraded shares of GSK from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of GSK from $52.50 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, GSK has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $50.00.

GSK Stock Down 3.1 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.82. The company has a market capitalization of $76.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.65. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.11.

GSK (NYSE:GSK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The pharmaceutical company reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.09. GSK had a net margin of 12.87% and a return on equity of 51.48%. The business had revenue of $9.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Sell-side analysts forecast that GSK plc will post 4.14 earnings per share for the current year.

GSK Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 10th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a dividend of $0.3843 per share. This is an increase from GSK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. This represents a $1.54 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.15%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. GSK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.80%.

Insider Transactions at GSK

In other GSK news, major shareholder Plc Gsk purchased 2,791,930 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 27th. The stock was bought at an average price of $8.00 per share, for a total transaction of $22,335,440.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 16,775,691 shares in the company, valued at $134,205,528. This represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 10.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of GSK by 14.6% in the third quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. now owns 17,700 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $724,000 after buying an additional 2,260 shares during the period. PDS Planning Inc boosted its holdings in shares of GSK by 15.9% in the third quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 6,173 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $252,000 after buying an additional 849 shares during the period. Old North State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of GSK in the third quarter valued at approximately $220,000. KG&L Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of GSK by 44.1% in the third quarter. KG&L Capital Management LLC now owns 16,685 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $679,000 after buying an additional 5,104 shares during the period. Finally, Forum Financial Management LP acquired a new position in shares of GSK in the third quarter valued at approximately $204,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.