Fortis Group Advisors LLC Sells 133 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Fortis Group Advisors LLC decreased its position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,923 shares of the company’s stock after selling 133 shares during the quarter. Fortis Group Advisors LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $609,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Americana Partners LLC boosted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.4% during the second quarter. Americana Partners LLC now owns 21,697 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,686,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the period. ESG Planning DBA Harper Investing lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 121.7% during the second quarter. ESG Planning DBA Harper Investing now owns 19,804 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,452,000 after buying an additional 10,872 shares during the last quarter. Jaffetilchin Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.1% during the second quarter. Jaffetilchin Investment Partners LLC now owns 26,565 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,289,000 after buying an additional 545 shares during the last quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 4.0% during the second quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co now owns 52,008 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,453,000 after buying an additional 2,024 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Foster Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 11.4% during the second quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 3,559 shares of the company’s stock worth $441,000 after buying an additional 363 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MRK traded up $0.99 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $118.45. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,876,478 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,613,569. Merck & Co., Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $99.14 and a fifty-two week high of $134.63. The company has a market capitalization of $300.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 131.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $121.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $125.41.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.16 by $0.12. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 41.67% and a net margin of 21.99%. The company had revenue of $16.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.87 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted ($2.06) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 7th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th will be given a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.60%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is 342.22%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on MRK shares. Bank of America cut their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Evercore ISI upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Argus upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $134.58.

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.