700 Shares in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Acquired by Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC

Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 700 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $92,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MRK. Cross Staff Investments Inc boosted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Cross Staff Investments Inc now owns 6,710 shares of the company’s stock worth $732,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. PFW Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the 1st quarter valued at $212,000. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC raised its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 77,833 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,270,000 after purchasing an additional 4,433 shares during the period. Kennedy Investment Group raised its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 16.0% during the 4th quarter. Kennedy Investment Group now owns 2,564 shares of the company’s stock valued at $280,000 after purchasing an additional 354 shares during the period. Finally, Schear Investment Advisers LLC increased its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 16.0% in the 4th quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 3,233 shares of the company’s stock valued at $352,000 after acquiring an additional 445 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on MRK shares. Berenberg Bank lifted their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Argus upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Societe Generale downgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $104.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, March 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $133.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of MRK stock traded down $1.87 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $125.85. 4,002,052 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,506,954. 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 company’s 50-day moving average price is $129.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $124.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $318.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 139.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.38.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $15.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.21 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 3.76% and a return on equity of 14.05%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.40 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 17th will be given a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 17th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.45%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is presently 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.