Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 38.4% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 60,152 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,699 shares during the quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $7,937,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MRK. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the fourth quarter valued at $3,108,366,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.7% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 82,442,666 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,487,472,000 after buying an additional 5,196,914 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 14.8% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 36,682,866 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,966,029,000 after buying an additional 4,731,152 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 352.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 3,144,632 shares of the company’s stock valued at $342,814,000 after buying an additional 2,449,211 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 29,914.1% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 2,410,732 shares of the company’s stock valued at $262,818,000 after buying an additional 2,402,700 shares in the last quarter. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on MRK. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on 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. Argus upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Societe Generale cut Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $104.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, March 11th. TheStreet cut Merck & Co., Inc. from a “b+” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Merck & Co., Inc. currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $133.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

Shares of MRK opened at $123.80 on Monday. Merck & Co., Inc. has a twelve month low of $99.14 and a twelve month high of $134.63. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $129.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $124.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $313.56 billion, a PE ratio of 137.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 14.05% and a net margin of 3.76%. The company had revenue of $15.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.21 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.40 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 17th will be issued a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.49%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 17th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is presently 342.22%.

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.