Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Shares Bought by Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc.

Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. increased its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 12.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,829 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 643 shares during the quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $662,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MRK. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the fourth quarter valued at $561,000. Visionary Wealth Advisors grew its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 12,954 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,412,000 after purchasing an additional 345 shares in the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 65.5% in the 4th quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 801 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,000 after buying an additional 317 shares in the last quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 9.3% in the 4th quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 261,897 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,552,000 after buying an additional 22,385 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Long Island Investors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the 4th quarter valued at $203,000. 76.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Barclays lowered their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Wolfe Research upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $143.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. UBS Group dropped their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $125.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $133.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of MRK stock traded down $0.44 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $109.83. 1,721,601 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,747,752. 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. has a 12 month low of $99.14 and a 12 month high of $134.63. The stock has a market cap of $278.18 billion, a PE ratio of 121.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.39. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $114.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $123.36.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.16 by $0.12. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 40.69%. The firm had revenue of $16.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.87 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($2.06) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.80%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s 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.