Fiduciary Family Office LLC Acquires 12,983 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Fiduciary Family Office LLC increased its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 93.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 26,898 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,983 shares during the quarter. Merck & Co., Inc. makes up 1.4% of Fiduciary Family Office LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Fiduciary Family Office LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $3,549,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Cross Staff Investments Inc raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Cross Staff Investments Inc now owns 6,710 shares of the company’s stock valued at $732,000 after buying an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the first quarter valued at approximately $212,000. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.0% during the first quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 77,833 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,270,000 after purchasing an additional 4,433 shares during the last quarter. Kennedy Investment Group grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 16.0% during the fourth quarter. Kennedy Investment Group now owns 2,564 shares of the company’s stock valued at $280,000 after purchasing an additional 354 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schear Investment Advisers LLC grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 16.0% during the fourth quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 3,233 shares of the company’s stock valued at $352,000 after purchasing an additional 445 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MRK has been the subject of several recent research reports. Berenberg Bank upped their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Argus raised Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Truist Financial upped their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $135.36.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

MRK traded up $0.36 during trading on Monday, reaching $128.12. The stock had a trading volume of 6,331,942 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,389,916. The firm has a market capitalization of $324.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 142.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1-year low of $99.14 and a 1-year high of $134.63. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $128.98 and a two-hundred day moving average of $125.82.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.13. The firm 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 in the prior year, the firm posted $1.40 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 17th were given a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 17th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.40%. 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.