Vontobel Holding Ltd. Has $53.51 Million Stock Position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. reduced its position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 471,227 shares of the company’s stock after selling 36,292 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $53,513,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MRK. Capital World Investors raised its holdings 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 valued at $1,841,233,000 after acquiring an additional 5,627,923 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.7% during the first 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 during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.9% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,693,065 shares of the company’s stock worth $952,402,000 after acquiring an additional 64,996 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 38.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 7,530,111 shares of the company’s stock worth $855,119,000 after acquiring an additional 2,095,694 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 4.4% during the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 7,070,287 shares of the company’s stock worth $932,924,000 after acquiring an additional 296,092 shares during the last quarter. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on MRK. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Truist Financial dropped 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, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $133.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

MRK traded down $1.57 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $109.96. 2,456,568 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,735,597. Merck & Co., Inc. has a twelve month low of $99.14 and a twelve month high of $134.63. The company has a market cap of $278.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 123.93, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $114.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $122.78.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $16.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.87 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 40.69%. The company’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($2.06) earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.80%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is presently 342.22%.

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.