Opinicus Capital Inc. Invests $418,000 in GSK plc (NYSE:GSK)

Opinicus Capital Inc. bought a new position in shares of GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 11,286 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $418,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of GSK by 7.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,099,513 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock worth $656,107,000 after acquiring an additional 1,291,161 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA grew 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 valued at $437,130,000 after buying an additional 287,000 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in GSK by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 8,079,897 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $292,896,000 after buying an additional 389,871 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its position in GSK by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 7,551,555 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $273,744,000 after buying an additional 156,480 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Provident Trust Co. grew its position in GSK by 53.6% in the 4th quarter. Provident Trust Co. now owns 3,716,830 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $137,746,000 after buying an additional 1,297,385 shares during the last quarter. 15.74% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

GSK Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GSK traded up $0.20 during trading on Friday, hitting $41.11. 2,730,464 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,904,690. The company has a market cap of $85.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.66, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.64. GSK plc has a 1 year low of $33.33 and a 1 year high of $43.84. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $41.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $38.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

GSK (NYSE:GSK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The pharmaceutical company reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.76 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.79 billion. GSK had a return on equity of 51.45% and a net margin of 16.24%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that GSK plc will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

GSK Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.3564 per share. This represents a $1.43 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. This is an increase from GSK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. GSK’s payout ratio is 52.82%.

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.