Douglas Lane & Associates LLC Buys 23,765 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Douglas Lane & Associates LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 4.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 527,245 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 23,765 shares during the quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $69,570,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MRK. NTV Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. NTV Asset Management LLC now owns 26,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,893,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 5,037 shares of the company’s stock worth $549,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Endowment Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Endowment Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,637 shares of the company’s stock worth $288,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 19,166 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,089,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pinnacle Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Pinnacle Holdings LLC now owns 12,229 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,333,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of MRK stock opened at $130.72 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The stock has a market cap of $331.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 145.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.39. Merck & Co., Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $99.14 and a fifty-two week high of $133.10. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $128.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $123.49.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $15.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.21 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 14.05% and a net margin of 3.76%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.40 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 8th. Investors of record on Monday, June 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.36%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 17th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is currently 342.22%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on MRK. Truist Financial increased their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Societe Generale cut Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $104.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, March 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Berenberg Bank increased their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, TheStreet cut Merck & Co., Inc. from a “b+” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $133.00.

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.