Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Coverage Initiated at Sanford C. Bernstein

Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) in a research note released on Thursday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage issued a market perform rating and a $115.00 price objective on the stock.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Evercore ISI raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $125.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Bank of America decreased 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 report on Wednesday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $131.62.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

MRK opened at $108.70 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $114.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $122.34. The firm has a market cap of $275.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 120.78, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.39. Merck & Co., Inc. has a twelve month low of $99.14 and a twelve month high of $134.63. 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 quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.16 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $16.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.87 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 40.69%. The business’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned ($2.06) EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The company 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. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.83%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is 342.22%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Violich Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Violich Capital Management Inc. now owns 91,229 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,360,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares during the period. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. now owns 32,187 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,655,000 after purchasing an additional 1,250 shares during the period. Godsey & Gibb Inc. boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Godsey & Gibb Inc. now owns 176,433 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,036,000 after purchasing an additional 3,198 shares during the period. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 112.5% during the 3rd quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 1,577 shares of the company’s stock valued at $179,000 after purchasing an additional 835 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 53.0% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,288,138 shares of the company’s stock valued at $146,281,000 after purchasing an additional 446,369 shares during the period. 76.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.