MCF Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

MCF Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,180 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 284 shares during the period. MCF Advisors LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $1,960,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MRK. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the 2nd quarter valued at about $39,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 121.8% in the second quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 326 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 179 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the second quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 47.5% during the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 379 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 122 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 27.7% in the 2nd quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 397 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 86 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MRK has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays decreased their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $115.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $131.50.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Down 1.8 %

NYSE:MRK traded down $1.90 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $103.98. The company had a trading volume of 9,625,498 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,795,396. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $113.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $121.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $263.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.29, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.39. 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.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $16.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.87 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 40.69% and a net margin of 21.99%. The company’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted ($2.06) EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.8 earnings per share 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.