Addenda Capital Inc. Lowers Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Addenda Capital Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 0.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 57,745 shares of the company’s stock after selling 162 shares during the quarter. Addenda Capital Inc.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $7,663,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Algert Global LLC bought a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. in the 3rd quarter worth $454,000. Morningstar Investment Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 45.3% during the third quarter. Morningstar Investment Services LLC now owns 6,043 shares of the company’s stock valued at $630,000 after purchasing an additional 1,885 shares during the last quarter. Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the third quarter valued at approximately $946,000. Ancora Advisors LLC grew its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.7% during the third quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 44,250 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,556,000 after buying an additional 309 shares during the period. Finally, Kinloch Capital LLC grew its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 112.4% during the third quarter. Kinloch Capital LLC now owns 4,192 shares of the company’s stock valued at $432,000 after buying an additional 2,218 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MRK has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted 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 report on Wednesday, March 27th. Berenberg Bank boosted their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Argus upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Truist Financial upped 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. Finally, Societe Generale lowered shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $104.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, March 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $133.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

Merck & Co., Inc. stock traded down $6.02 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $123.80. 49,865,559 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,541,271. The company has a market cap of $313.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 137.56, a PEG ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.39. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $129.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $124.13. 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 12-month low of $99.14 and a 12-month high of $134.63.

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

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

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