Royal Fund Management LLC Purchases 880 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Royal Fund Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 58,565 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 880 shares during the period. Royal Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $6,388,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.8% in the third quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 175,716 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,090,000 after acquiring an additional 3,086 shares during the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 20.0% in the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 59,538 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,130,000 after purchasing an additional 9,903 shares during the last quarter. Fundamentum LLC boosted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.2% in the third quarter. Fundamentum LLC now owns 18,947 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,951,000 after buying an additional 1,100 shares in the last quarter. Talbot Financial LLC boosted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.5% in the third quarter. Talbot Financial LLC now owns 79,632 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,198,000 after buying an additional 361 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Windsor Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 8.4% during the third quarter. Windsor Wealth Management Inc. now owns 3,140 shares of the company’s stock worth $323,000 after buying an additional 244 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on MRK shares. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Berenberg Bank upped their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Societe Generale lowered 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $131.33.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

NYSE:MRK traded down $0.75 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $127.51. 6,221,928 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,932,243. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52 week low of $99.14 and a 52 week high of $133.10. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $126.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $116.75. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The firm has a market cap of $322.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 141.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.39.

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 14.15% 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. On average, research analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total transaction of $124,890.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 19,569 shares in the company, valued at $2,443,972.41. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

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.