MV Capital Management Inc. Purchases 17,210 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

MV Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 189.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 26,298 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,210 shares during the period. MV Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $3,470,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MRK. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 85,595,999 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,331,676,000 after acquiring an additional 3,153,333 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 14.8% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 36,682,866 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,966,029,000 after buying an additional 4,731,152 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,108,366,000. Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 12.8% during the 4th quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 14,972,074 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,632,255,000 after buying an additional 1,696,151 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 13,566,968 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,479,071,000 after buying an additional 228,578 shares during the period. 76.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MRK. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Berenberg Bank upped their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Societe Generale cut 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 report on Monday, March 11th. Finally, TheStreet lowered shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “b+” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $133.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 0.1 %

NYSE MRK traded down $0.18 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $127.72. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,644,851 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,542,703. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $129.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $124.55. The stock has a market cap of $323.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 141.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.38. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52 week low of $99.14 and a 52 week high of $134.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $15.78 billion during 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%. The company’s revenue was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.40 EPS. Equities analysts forecast 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.41%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 17th. 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.