Lmcg Investments LLC Has $12.76 Million Position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Lmcg Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 112,382 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 546 shares during the period. Lmcg Investments LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $12,762,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Patron Partners LLC boosted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.1% in the first quarter. Patron Partners LLC now owns 10,580 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,396,000 after buying an additional 222 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. boosted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 10.0% in the first quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 247,338 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,636,000 after buying an additional 22,578 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 16.6% in the third quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 63,101 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,211,000 after buying an additional 8,985 shares in the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 114.2% in the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 802,384 shares of the company’s stock valued at $91,205,000 after buying an additional 427,831 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc acquired a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the first quarter valued at about $48,921,000. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MRK has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $136.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $123.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Evercore ISI raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $115.00 target price for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Merck & Co., Inc. presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $129.93.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE:MRK traded down $0.44 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $101.88. The stock had a trading volume of 10,180,978 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,858,824. Merck & Co., Inc. has a one year low of $98.60 and a one year high of $134.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company has a market cap of $258.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.39. The business’s 50 day moving average is $112.29 and its 200-day moving average is $120.87.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $16.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.47 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 40.69%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.13 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.