Flputnam Investment Management Co. Takes $200,000 Position in GSK plc (NYSE:GSK)

Flputnam Investment Management Co. acquired a new position in shares of GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 5,402 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $200,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of GSK by 7.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,099,513 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $656,107,000 after purchasing an additional 1,291,161 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in GSK by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 12,292,913 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $437,383,000 after buying an additional 673,419 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its position in GSK by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 12,058,770 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $437,130,000 after buying an additional 287,000 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in shares of GSK by 32.5% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,621,370 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $419,107,000 after buying an additional 2,362,274 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted its position in shares of GSK by 5.1% in the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 8,079,897 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $292,896,000 after acquiring an additional 389,871 shares during the period. 15.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

GSK Price Performance

Shares of GSK stock opened at $39.28 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $81.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.64. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.77. GSK plc has a twelve month low of $33.33 and a twelve month high of $43.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.88.

GSK (NYSE:GSK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 31st. The pharmaceutical company reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by ($0.04). GSK had a net margin of 16.24% and a return on equity of 51.45%. The company had revenue of $10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.79 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that GSK plc will post 4.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

GSK Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.3564 per share. This is a positive change from GSK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.43 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.63%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. GSK’s dividend payout ratio is currently 52.82%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GSK. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of GSK in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. They set an “equal weight” rating for the company. Guggenheim upgraded shares of GSK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Citigroup upgraded GSK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded GSK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy”.

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.