Merck & Co., Inc. $MRK Shares Purchased by waypoint wealth counsel

waypoint wealth counsel grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 164.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,809 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,481 shares during the period. waypoint wealth counsel’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $697,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MRK. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 144.6% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 49,229,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,418,820,000 after purchasing an additional 29,104,112 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the first quarter worth $991,553,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 2,240.9% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 5,286,801 shares of the company’s stock worth $474,543,000 after purchasing an additional 5,060,959 shares during the period. Amundi raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 37.1% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 13,077,716 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,130,397,000 after purchasing an additional 3,542,036 shares during the period. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the second quarter worth $258,267,000. 76.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MRK has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $99.00 to $98.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Berenberg Bank cut shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $100.00 to $90.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 17th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $97.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $104.31.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Down 1.7%

Merck & Co., Inc. stock opened at $86.02 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $83.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $81.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $214.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.25, a P/E/G ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.42. Merck & Co., Inc. has a one year low of $73.31 and a one year high of $111.58.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The company reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.03 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $15.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.92 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 25.79% and a return on equity of 41.05%. Merck & Co., Inc. has set its FY 2025 guidance at 8.870-8.970 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 7th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th were given a $0.81 dividend. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 15th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.92%.

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.