Motive Wealth Advisors Takes Position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Motive Wealth Advisors acquired a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 2,854 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $377,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Houlihan Financial Resource Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 4.5% in the 1st quarter. Houlihan Financial Resource Group Ltd. now owns 4,714 shares of the company’s stock worth $622,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. Stokes Family Office LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 9.0% in the 1st quarter. Stokes Family Office LLC now owns 7,740 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,021,000 after acquiring an additional 641 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 199.1% in the 1st quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 91,444 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,066,000 after acquiring an additional 60,867 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 25.7% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 206,321 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,224,000 after acquiring an additional 42,178 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Finance LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 91,929 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,130,000 after acquiring an additional 3,067 shares in the last quarter. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MRK has been the topic of several research reports. Berenberg Bank upped their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock 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. Morgan Stanley upped 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. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Merck & Co., Inc. presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $134.33.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Down 0.9 %

MRK stock traded down $1.21 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $127.76. The company had a trading volume of 6,995,589 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,405,373. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52 week low of $99.14 and a 52 week high of $134.63. The company has a market capitalization of $323.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 141.96, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $128.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $125.57.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $15.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.21 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 3.76% and a return on equity of 14.05%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.40 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 8th. Investors of record on Monday, June 17th were paid a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 17th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.41%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 342.22%.

About Merck & Co., Inc.

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.