Joel Isaacson & Co. LLC Acquires 383 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Joel Isaacson & Co. LLC lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 1.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 27,387 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 383 shares during the quarter. Joel Isaacson & Co. LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $3,110,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 67.6% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,954,017 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,841,233,000 after purchasing an additional 5,627,923 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.2% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 9,874,714 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,121,372,000 after buying an additional 114,080 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,362,812 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,102,135,000 after acquiring an additional 56,644 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.9% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,693,065 shares of the company’s stock worth $952,402,000 after purchasing an additional 64,996 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB boosted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 38.6% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 7,530,111 shares of the company’s stock worth $855,119,000 after acquiring an additional 2,095,694 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on MRK shares. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $143.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $115.00 target price on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $125.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $131.50.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 1.8 %

MRK opened at $103.98 on Friday. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1-year low of $99.80 and a 1-year high of $134.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The company has a market cap of $263.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $113.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $121.66.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $16.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.87 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 40.69%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($2.06) EPS. Analysts predict that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.