Southland Equity Partners LLC Makes New Investment in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Southland Equity Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 1,766 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $233,000.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cross Staff Investments Inc raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Cross Staff Investments Inc now owns 6,710 shares of the company’s stock valued at $732,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares during the period. PFW Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the 1st quarter valued at $212,000. Kennedy Investment Group raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 16.0% in the 4th quarter. Kennedy Investment Group now owns 2,564 shares of the company’s stock valued at $280,000 after acquiring an additional 354 shares during the period. Schear Investment Advisers LLC grew its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 16.0% in the fourth quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 3,233 shares of the company’s stock valued at $352,000 after acquiring an additional 445 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Knuff & Co LLC raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Knuff & Co LLC now owns 12,270 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,338,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Up 1.7 %

NYSE MRK opened at $132.98 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $336.81 billion, a PE ratio of 147.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.39. Merck & Co., Inc. has a one year low of $99.14 and a one year high of $133.31. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $128.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $123.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.25.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.13. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 14.05% and a net margin of 3.76%. The business had revenue of $15.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.21 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.40 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.32%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 17th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 342.22%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MRK has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Societe Generale lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $104.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, March 11th. TheStreet downgraded Merck & Co., Inc. from a “b+” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. Argus upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Merck & Co., Inc. currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $133.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. 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.