Robinson Smith Wealth Advisors LLC Takes Position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Robinson Smith Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 6,539 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $713,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MRK. NTV Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. NTV Asset Management LLC now owns 26,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,893,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the period. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 5,037 shares of the company’s stock valued at $549,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the period. Endowment Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Endowment Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,637 shares of the company’s stock valued at $288,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the period. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 19,166 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,089,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. Finally, Ascent Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 16,579 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,807,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

NYSE:MRK traded up $1.01 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $125.54. 18,150,452 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,774,413. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52-week low of $99.14 and a 52-week high of $133.10. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $128.48 and its 200 day moving average price is $120.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The company has a market cap of $317.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 139.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 0.39.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $15.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.21 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 14.05% and a net margin of 3.76%. The business’s revenue was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.40 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 17th will be given a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 17th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.45%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 342.22%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Societe Generale lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $104.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, March 11th. Berenberg Bank lifted their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, TheStreet lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from a “b+” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $131.33.

Merck & Co., Inc. 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.