GSK (LON:GSK) Reaches New 52-Week High – Still a Buy?

Shares of GSK plc (LON:GSK) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as GBX 2,230 and last traded at GBX 2,224.40, with a volume of 22655818 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at GBX 2,184.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 2,100 target price on shares of GSK in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Citigroup increased their price objective on GSK from GBX 1,900 to GBX 2,250 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “underweight” rating on shares of GSK in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of GSK from GBX 1,600 to GBX 1,675 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Shore Capital Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 2,300 price objective on shares of GSK in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of GBX 1,917.86.

GSK Trading Up 1.8%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 114.64, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.81. The company has a market capitalization of £89.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.31. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of GBX 1,888.13 and a 200-day moving average price of GBX 1,702.91.

GSK (LON:GSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported GBX 172 earnings per share for the quarter. GSK had a net margin of 8.02% and a return on equity of 18.08%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that GSK plc will post 175.980975 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at GSK

In other GSK news, insider Jonathan Symonds bought 2,500 shares of GSK stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The shares were purchased at an average price of GBX 2,114 per share, with a total value of £52,850. Also, insider Wendy Becker purchased 441 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 19th. The stock was acquired at an average price of GBX 1,809 per share, for a total transaction of £7,977.69. Insiders have bought 4,597 shares of company stock valued at $9,082,343 over the last three months. 0.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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. The company offers shingles, meningitis, respiratory syncytial virus, flu, polio, influenza, and pandemic vaccines. It also provides medicines for HIV, oncology, respiratory/immunology, and other specialty medicine products, as well as inhaled medicines for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and antibiotics for infections.