ERn Financial LLC Has $326,000 Stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

ERn Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 11.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,868 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 297 shares during the quarter. ERn Financial LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $326,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. QV Investors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.6% during the third quarter. QV Investors Inc. now owns 41,212 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,680,000 after buying an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Petredis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 39,850 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,525,000 after purchasing an additional 171 shares in the last quarter. Magnus Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 4.7% in the third quarter. Magnus Financial Group LLC now owns 7,346 shares of the company’s stock valued at $834,000 after buying an additional 331 shares during the last quarter. Investment Advisory Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 19.9% in the third quarter. Investment Advisory Group LLC now owns 2,493 shares of the company’s stock worth $283,000 after acquiring an additional 413 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dover Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 14.9% during the third quarter. Dover Advisors LLC now owns 14,172 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,609,000 after purchasing an additional 1,838 shares during the last quarter. 76.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

Shares of MRK opened at $110.43 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $279.70 billion, a PE ratio of 122.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.39. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $114.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $122.69. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52-week low of $99.14 and a 52-week high of $134.63.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.12. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 40.69%. The company had revenue of $16.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.87 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($2.06) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.79%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 342.22%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Truist Financial dropped their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $143.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. has an average rating of “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.