Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC Acquires 216 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 0.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,291 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 216 shares during the period. Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $2,091,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Midwest Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Noble Wealth Management PBC bought a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Promus Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, TruNorth Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 83.7% in the fourth quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 316 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Dalton E. Smart III sold 4,262 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.76, for a total transaction of $352,723.12. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 7,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $643,707.28. This represents a 35.40% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on MRK. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $115.00 price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald cut Merck & Co., Inc. from an “overweight” rating to a “cautious” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $84.00 target price (down from $115.00) on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $128.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $109.19.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of NYSE MRK opened at $80.26 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.36. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $78.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $89.57. Merck & Co., Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $73.31 and a fifty-two week high of $134.63. The company has a market cap of $201.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.93, a PEG ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.38.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.06. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 45.35% and a net margin of 26.67%. The company had revenue of $15.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.59 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.07 EPS. Merck & Co., Inc.’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.81 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.04%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is currently 47.16%.

About Merck & Co., Inc.

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.