Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Shares Sold by Slagle Financial LLC

Slagle Financial LLC trimmed its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 86.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,823 shares of the company’s stock after selling 17,276 shares during the quarter. Slagle Financial LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $349,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Cross Staff Investments Inc lifted its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Cross Staff Investments Inc now owns 6,710 shares of the company’s stock worth $732,000 after buying an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the first quarter worth about $212,000. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC grew its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.0% during the first quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 77,833 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,270,000 after buying an additional 4,433 shares in the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC increased its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Knuff & Co LLC now owns 12,270 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,338,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC raised its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 13.0% in the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 145,574 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,870,000 after acquiring an additional 16,730 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on MRK. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Truist Financial raised 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. Evercore ISI raised Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Barclays cut their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $145.00 to $142.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $134.58.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

MRK stock traded up $0.05 on Friday, hitting $116.60. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,360,045 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,672,231. The stock has a market cap of $295.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 129.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.38. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $122.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $125.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1 year low of $99.14 and a 1 year high of $134.63.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.16 by $0.12. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 41.67%. The business had revenue of $16.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.87 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($2.06) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be paid a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.64%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 342.22%.

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.