Trilogy Capital Inc. Has $779,000 Stock Position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Trilogy Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 111.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,902 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,112 shares during the quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $779,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MRK. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Bare Financial Services Inc acquired a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Burkett Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, RIA Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MRK traded down $6.02 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $123.80. 57,055,458 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,215,418. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 12 month low of $99.14 and a 12 month high of $134.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $313.56 billion, a PE ratio of 137.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.39. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $129.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $124.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.25.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $15.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.21 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.40 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 8th. Investors of record on Monday, June 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 17th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.