Evernest Financial Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. $MRK

Evernest Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 5.4% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 11,680 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 598 shares during the quarter. Evernest Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $925,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MRK. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 29.5% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 38,278 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,808,000 after acquiring an additional 8,710 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 12.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 48,267 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,332,000 after acquiring an additional 5,337 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 5.5% during the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 1,646,903 shares of the company’s stock valued at $147,826,000 after acquiring an additional 86,412 shares during the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 45.7% during the first quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 44,279 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,926,000 after acquiring an additional 13,891 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PUREfi Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 50.7% during the first quarter. PUREfi Wealth LLC now owns 4,729 shares of the company’s stock valued at $424,000 after acquiring an additional 1,590 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Berenberg Bank lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $100.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $99.00 to $98.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Citigroup assumed coverage on Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Monday. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $95.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on 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 assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $105.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock opened at $84.11 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $210.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.96, a PEG ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 0.37. Merck & Co., Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $73.31 and a fifty-two week high of $111.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.42. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $83.76 and a 200 day moving average of $81.44.

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

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 15th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.92%.

Merck & Co., Inc. 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.