London, April 24, 2026, 17:09 BST
GSK plc fell 2.7% to finish at 2,020p on Friday, lagging behind the broader London market. Investors appeared to shrug off the nearly completed buyback, focusing instead on next week’s Q1 report, Luke Miels’ first as CEO. The FTSE 100 wrapped up 0.75% lower, according to Hargreaves Lansdown.
The clock’s ticking. GSK is set to publish its first-quarter 2026 numbers at 0700 BST on Wednesday, April 29. Investors will get the update, and then a webcast kicks off at noon—next stop for insights on sales, vaccines, and those newer therapies Miels is betting on.
This also lands just as a key prop for the equity narrative is nearly spent. Earlier this month, GSK told investors its fourth share buyback tranche—up to £450 million—was on track to wrap up by April 24. That’s part of the company’s larger £2 billion repurchase plan, set to run through the end of Q2.
The buyback program pushed on late, with a Thursday filing revealing GSK picked up 965,671 shares on April 22 via BNP Paribas, paying a volume-weighted average price of 2,081.15p. That brings the total bought since Feb. 17 to 21,487,192 shares.
On Friday, a regulatory filing noted something minor: Maya Martinez-Davis, who heads GSK in the U.S., picked up 8.572 notional American Depositary Shares—essentially U.S. certificates linked to foreign shares—in her executive savings plan at $55.70 apiece.
The earnings mix is where the real scrutiny lands. According to GSK’s own broker consensus—drawn from 14 firms, among them Bank of America, Barclays, Citi, Jefferies, JPMorgan and UBS—analysts are looking for first-quarter turnover of £7.58 billion and earnings per share sitting at 43.3p. Vaccine sales are pegged at £2.03 billion, specialty medicines at £3.23 billion. Investors will be zeroing in on that split.
GSK is projecting turnover to climb between 3% and 5% by 2026 at constant exchange rates—so, stripping out the impact of currency moves. Core earnings per share, which is the company’s preferred adjusted profit metric, are expected to grow at a 7% to 9% clip. Operational profit growth, GSK highlighted, is likely to be concentrated in the second half of the year.
Since stepping in this January, Miels has been pushing for a quicker, more focused development drive. “We need to accelerate what we have,” he said to reporters back in February, as quoted by Reuters. He’s sticking with GSK’s ambition for sales topping £40 billion by 2031. Reuters
GSK’s oncology ambitions are clear. Following early results for Mo-Rez — an antibody-drug conjugate that targets cancer cells with a toxic payload — oncology R&D chief Hesham Abdullah called it “one of our priority assets” and flagged blockbuster potential, meaning at least $1 billion in yearly sales. He made the comments to reporters. Reuters
The company reported that Mo-Rez delivered confirmed response rates of 62% for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer and 67% in recurrent or advanced endometrial cancer, according to phase I results from the BEHOLD-1 study. Here, objective response rate refers to the proportion of patients achieving a pre-defined level of tumour shrinkage. Ana Oaknin, who served as a study investigator, pointed to the results as evidence of “meaningful antitumour activity” along with a “manageable safety profile.” GSK
Competition isn’t letting up. On Friday, Investors’ Chronicle called the coming week a litmus test for GSK’s oncology ambitions, setting its efforts against AstraZeneca’s robust drug pipeline. According to the publication, GSK is “doubling down on oncology,” while AstraZeneca “sails past patent expiries.” Investors’ Chronicle
The risks aren’t hard to spot. Buybacks will only carry earnings per share so much; if next week’s update brings weaker vaccine numbers, sluggish launches for fresh therapies, or fatter research bills, GSK could face even more questions about its follow-through. Mo-Rez remains in early stages, and as Reuters pointed out, analysts still haven’t penciled in any future sales for the drug.
Right now, GSK faces results week with expectations raised and not much room to miss. The drop on Friday hasn’t ended the debate—just moved the spotlight from capital returns to actual execution.
