&Partners Buys 9,452 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

&Partners grew its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 50.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 28,279 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,452 shares during the quarter. &Partners’ holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $3,760,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. FOCUS Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 40.3% in the first quarter. FOCUS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 16,340 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,156,000 after purchasing an additional 4,695 shares during the period. GSG Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the first quarter valued at about $268,000. Sanders Morris Harris LLC grew its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 34.3% in the first quarter. Sanders Morris Harris LLC now owns 6,066 shares of the company’s stock valued at $800,000 after acquiring an additional 1,549 shares in the last quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV grew its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 15.9% in the first quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV now owns 12,586 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,661,000 after acquiring an additional 1,725 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hyperion Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the first quarter valued at about $210,000. 76.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on MRK. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $155.00 price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. TheStreet downgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “b+” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Societe Generale downgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $104.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, March 11th. Finally, Berenberg Bank increased their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $133.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Up 0.8 %

MRK opened at $130.72 on Monday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $128.85 and its 200-day moving average is $123.49. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1-year low of $99.14 and a 1-year high of $133.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The company has a market cap of $331.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 145.24, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.39.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.13. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 3.76% and a return on equity of 14.05%. The company had revenue of $15.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.21 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.40 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 17th will be paid a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 17th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.36%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is currently 342.22%.

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.