Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Stake Reduced by CRA Financial Services LLC

CRA Financial Services LLC reduced its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 1.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 14,072 shares of the company’s stock after selling 152 shares during the quarter. CRA Financial Services LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $1,857,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Algert Global LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the third quarter valued at $454,000. Gateway Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 9.2% during the 3rd quarter. Gateway Advisory LLC now owns 2,906 shares of the company’s stock valued at $299,000 after purchasing an additional 245 shares during the period. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC now owns 20,302 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,105,000 after acquiring an additional 1,281 shares during the period. Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC now owns 30,340 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,124,000 after acquiring an additional 831 shares during the period. Finally, Truist Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 4,060,789 shares of the company’s stock worth $418,058,000 after acquiring an additional 73,170 shares during the period. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 4.6 %

NYSE:MRK traded down $6.02 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $123.80. 57,055,458 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,215,418. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $129.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $124.27. Merck & Co., Inc. has a one year low of $99.14 and a one year high of $134.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $313.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 137.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.39.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $15.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.21 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 14.05% and a net margin of 3.76%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.40 EPS. Sell-side 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 17th will be paid a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 17th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.49%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is presently 342.22%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on MRK shares. TheStreet cut Merck & Co., Inc. from a “b+” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. Argus upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Societe Generale lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $104.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, March 11th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $133.00.

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.