I’m eager to get to work on this yr’s Shares and Shares ISA allowance and one FTSE 100 blue chip intrigues me. The corporate is pharmaceutical big GSK (LSE: GSK) and it’s taken an actual beating currently.

I’ve seen that initially hand, as a result of I’ve a small GSK holding in my self-invested private pension (SIPP). It’s been an enormous disappointment however I’m tempted to benefit from its current troubles by averaging down and shopping for extra.

So what’s ailing GSK? First, there’s the long-term downside that CEO Emma Walmsley has confronted since taking on in 2017. GSK must replenish its medicine pipeline, to interchange former blockbusters as they go off patent.

Can the GSK share price get well?

This includes pouring cash into research and growth, and Walmsley has raised the money by freezing the dividend per share at 80p per share for yonks. It was reduce to 44p in 2022 and 42p final yr. Whereas I felt this ‘jam tomorrow’ strategy was the correct one, tomorrow by no means appears to reach.

In 2017, this inventory, then buying and selling as GlaxoSmithKline, was seen as among the finest dividend shares on the FTSE 100, with a yield of 6.05%. That’s now not the case. Right this moment’s trailing yield of 4.34% is okay, however it’s been artificially pumped up by current share price falls.

GSK shares have plunged 21.43% during the last six months. Whereas they’re up 7.63% over one yr, they’re down 24.78% over 5.

Trying on the 10-year price chart, I’m severely unimpressed. The GSK share price has spiked on a number of events, solely to offer up its positive aspects each time. Total, it’s down over the last decade, from 1,515p to 1,337p. Not good.

GSK has confronted two large issues this yr. The primary was a US class motion over claims {that a} discontinued model of its blockbuster heartburn therapy Zantac brought on most cancers. No sooner was this largely settled in a $2.2bn payout on 9 October, than Donald Trump received the US presidential election.

Trump trades backfires on large pharma

Pharmaceutical shares plunged throughout the board when Trump appointed vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy, Jr, as US Well being Secretary on 15 November. The GSK share price hit a two-year low on the information.

Trump has additionally nervous the trade by plans to decrease drug costs, together with by making it simpler to import drugs to the US from Canada.

This makes it a dangerous time to spend money on GSK though it looks as if the worst-case state of affairs has been priced in. The shares look low cost buying and selling at simply 8.44 instances earnings.

The 16 analysts providing one-year GSK share price forecasts have set a median goal of 1,739p. If that involves move, the shares will climb 30% from right here. There’s a variety in there, although, from a excessive of two,160p to a low of 1,350p. A few of these forecasts could pre-date Trump’s landslide win, although.

Of those brokers, seven title GSK as a ‘strong buy’, whereas simply two title it a ‘strong sell’. The preferred verdict is ‘hold’, adopted by 10 of them. That’s my place too. I’ll maintain what I’ve acquired in my SIPP, however received’t purchase extra for my Shares and Shares ISA. GSK has been on inflicting ache on traders for too lengthy.