Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. Purchases 418 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 28.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,911 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 418 shares during the quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $190,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MRK. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the second quarter valued at $1,207,000. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 10.6% during the 2nd quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 17,090 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,116,000 after purchasing an additional 1,641 shares in the last quarter. Meridian Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 8.2% in the second quarter. Meridian Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,905 shares of the company’s stock worth $360,000 after buying an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. True Vision MN LLC purchased a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the second quarter worth about $436,000. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.5% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 764,343 shares of the company’s stock worth $94,626,000 after buying an additional 18,856 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MRK has been the subject of several analyst reports. Truist Financial reissued a “hold” rating and set a $110.00 price target (down previously from $130.00) on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Hsbc Global Res raised Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Leerink Partners lowered their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $136.00 to $119.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Daiwa America cut Merck & Co., Inc. from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $123.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $123.67.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of MRK stock opened at $100.20 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.15. The company has a market cap of $253.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.01, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.39. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1 year low of $94.48 and a 1 year high of $134.63. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $100.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $110.19.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.07. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 36.42% and a net margin of 19.23%. The business had revenue of $16.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.47 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.13 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were paid a dividend of $0.81 per share. This is a boost from Merck & Co., Inc.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.23%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 67.92%.

About Merck & Co., Inc.

Merck & Co, Inc is a health care company, which engages in the provision of health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health, and consumer care products. It operates through the following segments: Pharmaceutical, Animal Health, and Other. The Pharmaceutical segment includes human health pharmaceutical and vaccine products.