Welch & Forbes LLC Sells 12,375 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Welch & Forbes LLC cut its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 3.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 380,846 shares of the company’s stock after selling 12,375 shares during the quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $41,520,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. NTV Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. NTV Asset Management LLC now owns 26,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,893,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 5,037 shares of the company’s stock worth $549,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 19,166 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,089,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 16,579 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,807,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. grew its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 6,158 shares of the company’s stock worth $671,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Merck & Co., Inc.

In related news, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total value of $124,890.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 19,569 shares in the company, valued at $2,443,972.41. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.09% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on MRK. TheStreet lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from a “b+” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Berenberg Bank boosted their price target 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. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective 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. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Merck & Co., Inc. has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $131.33.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

Merck & Co., Inc. stock traded up $0.05 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $127.56. The company had a trading volume of 6,551,711 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,219,841. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 12-month low of $99.14 and a 12-month high of $133.10. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $126.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $117.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The company has a market capitalization of $323.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 141.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.39.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $15.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.21 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 3.76% and a return on equity of 14.15%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.40 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.69 EPS for the current year.

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.