Quotient Wealth Partners LLC Has $1.23 Million Position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Quotient Wealth Partners LLC cut its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 15.7% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 10,812 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,015 shares during the quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $1,228,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of MRK. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the 4th quarter worth approximately $561,000. Visionary Wealth Advisors increased its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.7% in the 4th 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 during the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC increased its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 65.5% in the 4th quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 801 shares of the company’s stock valued at $87,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares during the last quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 9.3% during 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 bought a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the 4th quarter worth $203,000. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MRK has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays decreased their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $133.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE MRK traded down $0.55 during trading on Thursday, reaching $109.72. The company had a trading volume of 1,999,772 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,749,171. The stock has a market cap of $277.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 121.74, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.39. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $114.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $123.36. 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.

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

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were given a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 342.22%.

Merck & Co., Inc. Company 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.