Brighton Jones LLC Sells 6,137 Shares of GSK plc (NYSE:GSK)

Brighton Jones LLC cut its position in GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) by 46.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,999 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 6,137 shares during the quarter. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in GSK were worth $269,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. JTC Employer Solutions Trustee Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of GSK by 71.3% during the first quarter. JTC Employer Solutions Trustee Ltd now owns 21,141,012 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $909,063,000 after buying an additional 8,800,822 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new position in GSK during the fourth quarter worth about $92,281,000. Armistice Capital LLC raised its stake in GSK by 670.5% during the fourth quarter. Armistice Capital LLC now owns 2,196,000 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $81,384,000 after acquiring an additional 1,911,000 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its holdings in shares of GSK by 13.9% during the second quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 14,511,390 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $558,689,000 after purchasing an additional 1,773,020 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mondrian Investment Partners LTD grew its holdings in shares of GSK by 37.8% during the first quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD now owns 5,510,840 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $236,250,000 after purchasing an additional 1,512,442 shares during the last quarter. 15.74% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on GSK. Berenberg Bank upgraded GSK to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 20th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on GSK from $52.50 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Barclays upgraded GSK to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Citigroup upgraded GSK to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 24th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded GSK from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $50.00.

GSK Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GSK opened at $40.80 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $84.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. GSK plc has a 1-year low of $33.67 and a 1-year high of $45.92. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $41.39 and its 200 day moving average is $41.68.

GSK (NYSE:GSK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The pharmaceutical company reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.09. GSK had a return on equity of 51.48% and a net margin of 12.87%. The company had revenue of $9.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that GSK plc will post 4.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

GSK Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 10th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th will be given a dividend of $0.3843 per share. This represents a $1.54 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.77%. This is a positive change from GSK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 16th. GSK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.71%.

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.