MCF Advisors LLC Buys 807 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

MCF Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 5.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,603 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 807 shares during the period. MCF Advisors LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $2,199,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MRK. Opinicus Capital Inc. grew its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 19.4% during the first quarter. Opinicus Capital Inc. now owns 11,181 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,475,000 after acquiring an additional 1,820 shares in the last quarter. First Dallas Securities Inc. grew its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 10.8% during the first quarter. First Dallas Securities Inc. now owns 20,559 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,713,000 after acquiring an additional 2,009 shares in the last quarter. Avity Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 24.2% in the 1st quarter. Avity Investment Management Inc. now owns 25,919 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,420,000 after buying an additional 5,054 shares in the last quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky grew its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 18.1% in the 1st quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 18,114 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,390,000 after buying an additional 2,781 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norris Perne & French LLP MI grew its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Norris Perne & French LLP MI now owns 203,716 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,880,000 after buying an additional 548 shares in the last quarter. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MRK has been the subject of several analyst reports. Berenberg Bank raised their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Societe Generale downgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $104.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, March 11th. Argus upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $133.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 4.6 %

NYSE:MRK traded down $6.02 on Friday, reaching $123.80. The stock had a trading volume of 57,055,458 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,215,418. The company has a market cap of $313.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 137.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $129.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $124.13. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 12-month low of $99.14 and a 12-month high of $134.63.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.13. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 3.76% and a return on equity of 14.05%. The company had revenue of $15.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.21 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.40 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 8th. Investors of record on Monday, June 17th will be given a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 17th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 342.22%.

Merck & Co., Inc. Profile

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 under the Keytruda, Bridion, Adempas, Lagevrio, Belsomra, Simponi, and Januvia brands, as well as vaccine products consisting of preventive pediatric, adolescent, and adult vaccines under the Gardasil/Gardasil 9, ProQuad, M-M-R II, Varivax, RotaTeq, Live Oral, Vaxneuvance, Pneumovax 23, and Vaqta names.