Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Shares Bought by Austin Private Wealth LLC

Austin Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 6.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,580 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 339 shares during the period. Austin Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $608,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MRK. Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Advisor L.P grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 94.2% in the 1st quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Advisor L.P now owns 349,588 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,683,000 after acquiring an additional 169,536 shares during the period. BCK Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,423,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.3% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 159,225 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,064,000 after acquiring an additional 9,376 shares during the period. First Western Trust Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,078,000. Finally, Equitable Holdings Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 12.9% in the 1st quarter. Equitable Holdings Inc. now owns 36,124 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,964,000 after acquiring an additional 4,131 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $135.00 target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays upped their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Societe Generale lowered 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. StockNews.com raised Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen raised Merck & Co., Inc. from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $125.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Merck & Co., Inc. has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $129.71.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.65, for a total transaction of $6,420,395.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,619 shares in the company, valued at $2,991,346.35. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total value of $124,890.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 19,569 shares in the company, valued at $2,443,972.41. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.65, for a total value of $6,420,395.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 23,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,991,346.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Up 0.1 %

NYSE MRK traded up $0.17 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $131.92. The company had a trading volume of 10,188,693 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,807,398. Merck & Co., Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $99.14 and a fifty-two week high of $133.10. The company has a market capitalization of $334.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 942.86, a P/E/G ratio of 0.50 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $124.48 and its 200 day moving average is $112.52.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.12. The company had revenue of $14.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.49 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 9.33% and a net margin of 0.61%. The company’s revenue was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.62 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.33%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is presently 2,200.00%.

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.