Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Price Target Cut to $112.00 by Analysts at Bank of America

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) had its price target dropped by stock analysts at Bank of America from $118.00 to $112.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Bank of America‘s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 27.31% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $125.00 to $110.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Leerink Partners lowered their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $136.00 to $119.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $105.00 to $96.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Daiwa America downgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Guggenheim reduced their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $137.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $120.33.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MRK opened at $87.97 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $222.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.38. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $99.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $107.00. Merck & Co., Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $87.33 and a fifty-two week high of $134.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.36.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.85 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $15.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.51 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 36.42% and a net margin of 19.23%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.03 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, January 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 4.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Merck & Co., Inc.

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MRK. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 119,026,412 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,606,360,000 after purchasing an additional 1,536,474 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 4.6% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 75,809,383 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,608,914,000 after buying an additional 3,327,404 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 59,155,004 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,696,060,000 after buying an additional 2,134,296 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 29.7% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 24,213,537 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,408,763,000 after buying an additional 5,550,824 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 20,125,171 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,002,052,000 after buying an additional 1,317,878 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Merck & Co., Inc. Company Profile

Merck & Co, Inc is a health care company, which engages in the provision of health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health, and consumer care products. It operates through the following segments: Pharmaceutical, Animal Health, and Other. The Pharmaceutical segment includes human health pharmaceutical and vaccine products.