Brookstone Capital Management Boosts Stock Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Brookstone Capital Management lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 7.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 64,476 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,296 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $8,508,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MRK. Algert Global LLC bought a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the 3rd quarter worth $454,000. Mather Group LLC. raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 26,021 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,679,000 after purchasing an additional 1,433 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 86,820 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,938,000 after purchasing an additional 5,421 shares during the period. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 63.2% in the 3rd quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC now owns 4,778 shares of the company’s stock valued at $492,000 after acquiring an additional 1,850 shares during the period. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 211.0% in the 3rd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 118,729 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,223,000 after acquiring an additional 80,547 shares during the period. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on MRK shares. Truist Financial boosted their price objective 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. TheStreet cut Merck & Co., Inc. from a “b+” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Societe Generale cut Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $104.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, March 11th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Argus upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. One investment 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. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $133.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE MRK opened at $129.79 on Friday. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 12 month low of $99.14 and a 12 month high of $134.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $328.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 144.21, a PEG ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.39. The business has a 50-day moving average of $129.27 and a 200-day moving average of $123.96.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 company had revenue of $15.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.21 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.40 earnings per share. Merck & Co., Inc.’s revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 2.37%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 17th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is 342.22%.

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.