Assetmark Inc. Purchases 55,354 Shares of GSK plc (NYSE:GSK)

Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in shares of GSK plc (NYSE:GSK) by 279.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 75,149 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 55,354 shares during the quarter. Assetmark Inc.’s holdings in GSK were worth $2,542,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in GSK by 59.6% during the 3rd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 18,969 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $775,000 after buying an additional 7,080 shares in the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in GSK during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,905,000. United Bank grew its holdings in GSK by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 25,785 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,054,000 after buying an additional 1,760 shares in the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in GSK by 25.9% during the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 6,823 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $279,000 after buying an additional 1,402 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in GSK by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. now owns 16,693 shares of the pharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $682,000 after buying an additional 323 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 15.74% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of GSK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $53.00 to $39.50 in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of GSK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of GSK in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. They set an “equal weight” rating for the company. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of GSK from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, GSK currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.25.

GSK Trading Up 2.0 %

GSK stock opened at $40.08 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $35.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.14. GSK plc has a fifty-two week low of $31.72 and a fifty-two week high of $45.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a current ratio of 0.78. The firm has a market cap of $83.07 billion, a PE ratio of 25.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.58.

GSK (NYSE:GSK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The pharmaceutical company reported $0.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.15. GSK had a net margin of 8.13% and a return on equity of 48.59%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that GSK plc will post 4.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

GSK Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be paid a $0.3932 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. This represents a $1.57 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.92%. This is an increase from GSK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. GSK’s dividend payout ratio is currently 98.74%.

GSK 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.