Saxon Interests Inc. Has $2 Million Stock Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Saxon Interests Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 11.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,623 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,801 shares during the quarter. Merck & Co., Inc. makes up about 0.9% of Saxon Interests Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. Saxon Interests Inc.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $2,001,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MRK. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $561,000. Visionary Wealth Advisors raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Visionary Wealth Advisors now owns 12,954 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,412,000 after buying an additional 345 shares in the last quarter. Vista Investment Management raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 11.0% during the 4th quarter. Vista Investment Management now owns 12,395 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,351,000 after buying an additional 1,233 shares in the last quarter. Ethic Inc. lifted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.3% during the 4th quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 239,237 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,082,000 after buying an additional 14,261 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jacobi Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 61,847 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,743,000 after buying an additional 1,844 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MRK has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped 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 note on Wednesday, July 31st. Bank of America cut their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Wolfe Research raised Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Barclays cut their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $148.00 to $142.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Merck & Co., Inc. currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $134.42.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Up 0.5 %

Merck & Co., Inc. stock traded up $0.59 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $109.11. The stock had a trading volume of 1,824,154 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,748,894. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $114.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $123.45. 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 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The company has a market capitalization of $276.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 121.27, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.39.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.12. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 40.69% and a net margin of 21.99%. The firm had revenue of $16.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.87 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($2.06) earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend 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.