Little House Capital LLC Purchases 1,399 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Little House Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 30,351 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,399 shares during the period. Merck & Co., Inc. comprises about 1.0% of Little House Capital LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest holding. Little House Capital LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $3,447,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. in the second quarter worth $39,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 121.8% in the 2nd quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 326 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 179 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the 2nd quarter worth $42,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 27.7% in the 2nd quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 397 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the first quarter valued at approximately $53,000. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MRK has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $125.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $131.62.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE:MRK traded down $1.40 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $107.30. The company had a trading volume of 3,932,376 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,745,759. The company has a market capitalization of $271.77 billion, a PE ratio of 120.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.39. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $114.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $122.34. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52 week low of $99.80 and a 52 week high of $134.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.22.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.12. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 40.69% and a net margin of 21.99%. The firm had revenue of $16.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.87 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($2.06) EPS. Merck & Co., Inc.’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.87%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is 342.22%.

About Merck & Co., Inc.

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.