GSK vs. AZN, ITH, SOPH, HCM, INDV, GRI, SLS, ERGO, SLN, and AMYT
Should you be buying GSK stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of GSK include AstraZeneca (AZN), Ithaca Energy (ITH), Sophos Group plc (SOPH.L) (SOPH), HUTCHMED (HCM), Indivior (INDV), Grainger (GRI), Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust (SLS), Ergomed (ERGO), Silence Therapeutics (SLN), and Amryt Pharma (AMYT). These companies are all part of the "pharmaceutical products" industry.
GSK vs. Its Competitors
GSK (LON:GSK) and AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation and risk.
45.3% of GSK shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.0% of AstraZeneca shares are held by institutional investors. 1.6% of GSK shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of AstraZeneca shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
GSK has a beta of 0.31, meaning that its stock price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AstraZeneca has a beta of 0.17, meaning that its stock price is 83% less volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, AstraZeneca had 4 more articles in the media than GSK. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for AstraZeneca and 2 mentions for GSK. AstraZeneca's average media sentiment score of 0.19 beat GSK's score of -0.12 indicating that AstraZeneca is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
GSK pays an annual dividend of GBX 60 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. AstraZeneca pays an annual dividend of GBX 234 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. GSK pays out 96.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. AstraZeneca pays out 64.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.
AstraZeneca has a net margin of 13.01% compared to GSK's net margin of 8.02%. GSK's return on equity of 18.08% beat AstraZeneca's return on equity.
GSK currently has a consensus target price of GBX 1,725, suggesting a potential upside of 23.61%. AstraZeneca has a consensus target price of GBX 8,380, suggesting a potential downside of 17.99%. Given GSK's higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe GSK is more favorable than AstraZeneca.
AstraZeneca has higher revenue and earnings than GSK. GSK is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AstraZeneca, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
AstraZeneca beats GSK on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding GSK and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartMedia Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of LON and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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This page (LON:GSK) was last updated on 7/7/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff