Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Holdings Trimmed by DeDora Capital Inc.

DeDora Capital Inc. decreased its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 10.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,943 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,383 shares during the quarter. DeDora Capital Inc.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $1,356,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 67.6% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,954,017 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,841,233,000 after acquiring an additional 5,627,923 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 9,874,714 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,121,372,000 after acquiring an additional 114,080 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,362,812 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,102,135,000 after acquiring an additional 56,644 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,693,065 shares of the company’s stock worth $952,402,000 after purchasing an additional 64,996 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 38.6% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 7,530,111 shares of the company’s stock worth $855,119,000 after purchasing an additional 2,095,694 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays cut their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $115.00 price objective on the stock. Bank of America cut their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $143.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $131.62.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of MRK stock traded down $0.15 on Tuesday, hitting $106.19. 1,176,730 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,745,440. Merck & Co., Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $99.80 and a fifty-two week high of $134.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $268.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 118.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The business has a 50-day moving average of $114.16 and a 200 day moving average of $122.19.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.12. The business 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 40.69% and a net margin of 21.99%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($2.06) earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.88 EPS for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Company 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.