Proficio Capital Partners LLC Grows Stock Position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 3.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 18,403 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 535 shares during the quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $2,428,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cross Staff Investments Inc raised its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Cross Staff Investments Inc now owns 6,710 shares of the company’s stock valued at $732,000 after buying an additional 225 shares during the period. PFW Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $212,000. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC raised its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 77,833 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,270,000 after buying an additional 4,433 shares during the period. Kennedy Investment Group raised its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 16.0% during the 4th quarter. Kennedy Investment Group now owns 2,564 shares of the company’s stock valued at $280,000 after buying an additional 354 shares during the period. Finally, Schear Investment Advisers LLC raised its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 16.0% during the 4th quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 3,233 shares of the company’s stock valued at $352,000 after buying an additional 445 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Argus raised Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Berenberg Bank boosted their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on 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. Truist Financial boosted their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $133.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:MRK traded up $0.73 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $126.77. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 427,600 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,394,504. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.25. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $128.99 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $125.39. The company has a market capitalization of $321.08 billion, a PE ratio of 140.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.38. Merck & Co., Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $99.14 and a fifty-two week high of $134.63.

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

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 8th. Investors of record on Monday, June 17th were issued a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.43%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 17th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.