Meridian Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK – Free Report) by 7.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,778 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 194 shares during the quarter. Meridian Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $321,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.
Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich grew its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 102,675.5% in the 2nd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 1,860,147,936 shares of the company’s stock worth $214,642,470,000 after acquiring an additional 1,858,338,022 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 10.6% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 68,563,817 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,294,504,000 after acquiring an additional 6,546,946 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.0% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 51,218,756 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,438,036,000 after purchasing an additional 2,879,481 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 10.6% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 41,850,081 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,643,267,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000,816 shares during the period. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 103,159.7% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 39,327,490 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,363,385,000 after purchasing an additional 39,289,404 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.59% of the company’s stock.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of analysts have weighed in on MRK shares. UBS Group raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $117.00 to $122.00 in a report on Friday. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $122.00 price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Friday, October 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Monday, October 2nd. HSBC started coverage on Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Friday, July 14th. They set a “hold” rating and a $123.00 price objective for the company. Finally, TheStreet downgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from an “a-” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Friday, September 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $124.55.
Check Out Our Latest Report on Merck & Co., Inc.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In related news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 4,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.01, for a total transaction of $463,292.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 22,935 shares in the company, valued at $2,500,144.35. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance
Shares of NYSE MRK opened at $102.67 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $106.54 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $109.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.28. The firm has a market cap of $260.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 84.16, a PEG ratio of 4.00 and a beta of 0.34. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1 year low of $92.64 and a 1 year high of $119.65.
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 1st. The company reported ($2.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($2.18) by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $15.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.44 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 16.29% and a net margin of 5.34%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.87 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 3.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 15th were given a $0.73 dividend. This represents a $2.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 14th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 239.34%.
About Merck & Co., Inc.
(Free Report)
Merck & Co, Inc operates as a healthcare company worldwide. It operates through two segments, Pharmaceutical and Animal Health. The Pharmaceutical segment offers human health pharmaceutical products in the areas of oncology, hospital acute care, immunology, neuroscience, virology, cardiovascular, and diabetes, as well as vaccine products, such as preventive pediatric, adolescent, and adult vaccines.
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