Williams Financial LLC Acquires New Stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Williams Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 29,528 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,803,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MRK. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners purchased a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. in the 4th quarter valued at $66,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 157.8% during the 4th quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 17,410 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,894,000 after purchasing an additional 10,658 shares during the period. Peterson Wealth Services grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 64.7% during the 4th quarter. Peterson Wealth Services now owns 18,415 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,008,000 after purchasing an additional 7,232 shares during the period. Finally, Curran Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the 4th quarter worth $227,000. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on MRK shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $125.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Barclays lowered their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $145.00 to $142.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Wolfe Research upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $148.00 to $142.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $134.58.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Up 0.3 %

MRK stock traded up $0.36 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $113.67. The company had a trading volume of 10,102,341 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,717,050. 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 company has a market capitalization of $287.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 126.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.38. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $123.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $126.09. 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 quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.16 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $16.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.87 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 41.67% and a net margin of 21.99%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($2.06) EPS. Analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 7th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is 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.