BluePath Capital Management LLC Buys 1,728 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

BluePath Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 25.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 8,426 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,728 shares during the period. BluePath Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $957,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.3% in the third quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 23,294 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,478,000 after buying an additional 289 shares in the last quarter. Phillips Wealth Planners LLC lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.1% in the third quarter. Phillips Wealth Planners LLC now owns 9,086 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,003,000 after buying an additional 277 shares in the last quarter. Weatherly Asset Management L. P. lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 22.5% in the third quarter. Weatherly Asset Management L. P. now owns 6,212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $710,000 after buying an additional 1,143 shares in the last quarter. Americana Partners LLC lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 4.9% in the third quarter. Americana Partners LLC now owns 22,768 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,586,000 after buying an additional 1,071 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 9.2% in the third quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 80,851 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,181,000 after buying an additional 6,793 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on MRK. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $125.00 to $110.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. UBS Group cut 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 report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $129.93.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

NYSE:MRK opened at $101.87 on Friday. Merck & Co., Inc. has a one year low of $98.60 and a one year high of $134.63. The company has a market cap of $258.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.39. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $112.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $120.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.22.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.07. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 40.69%. The firm had revenue of $16.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.47 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.13 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Company 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.