Quest Investment Management LLC Sells 1,477 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Quest Investment Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 31,117 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,477 shares during the period. Quest Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $3,852,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MRK. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 7,418.6% during the second quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 31,879 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,947,000 after purchasing an additional 31,455 shares during the last quarter. Prospector Partners LLC raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Prospector Partners LLC now owns 162,111 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,069,000 after buying an additional 1,064 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 7.1% during the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 521,653 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,581,000 after buying an additional 34,574 shares during the period. Kowal Investment Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.3% in the 2nd quarter. Kowal Investment Group LLC now owns 9,982 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,236,000 after buying an additional 589 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 8.0% in the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 112,056 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,873,000 after acquiring an additional 8,269 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MRK has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI raised Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $125.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $148.00 to $142.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $134.58.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock opened at $117.17 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $117.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $124.31. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52 week low of $99.14 and a 52 week high of $134.63. The company has a market capitalization of $296.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 130.19, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $16.10 billion during 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($2.06) EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be issued a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.63%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.