Fort L.P. Sells 100 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Fort L.P. lessened its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,497 shares of the company’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. Fort L.P.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $284,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 10.1% in the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 55,281 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,332,000 after buying an additional 5,088 shares during the last quarter. Connecticut Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Connecticut Wealth Management LLC now owns 18,076 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,385,000 after buying an additional 147 shares during the last quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 21.7% in the 1st quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 7,782 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,033,000 after buying an additional 1,389 shares during the last quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC raised its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 105.4% in the 1st quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 6,640 shares of the company’s stock worth $876,000 after buying an additional 3,407 shares during the last quarter. Finally, StoneX Group Inc. raised its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 13.1% in the 1st quarter. StoneX Group Inc. now owns 34,234 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,543,000 after buying an additional 3,976 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wolfe Research raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $123.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $143.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $115.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $129.93.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE:MRK traded down $0.44 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $101.88. 10,180,978 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,562,252. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $112.29 and its 200-day moving average is $120.84. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 12-month low of $98.60 and a 12-month high of $134.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $258.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.07. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 37.32% and a net margin of 19.23%. The business had revenue of $16.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.47 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.13 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.76 EPS for the current year.

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.