Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA Sells 3,211 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA lessened its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 415,764 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,211 shares during the quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $44,021,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Golden State Equity Partners grew its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 10.9% during the 3rd quarter. Golden State Equity Partners now owns 31,426 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,569,000 after buying an additional 3,089 shares during the last quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the third quarter valued at $1,179,000. GSB Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 14.6% in the 3rd quarter. GSB Wealth Management LLC now owns 41,806 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,748,000 after acquiring an additional 5,333 shares during the last quarter. Trajan Wealth LLC lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 13.0% during the 3rd quarter. Trajan Wealth LLC now owns 40,085 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,552,000 after acquiring an additional 4,603 shares during the period. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC grew its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 22,244 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,526,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MRK has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on 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. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $143.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Wolfe Research raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $131.46.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock traded down $0.74 on Wednesday, hitting $102.99. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,011,007 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,756,849. The company has a market capitalization of $260.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.39. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1 year low of $99.80 and a 1 year high of $134.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.47. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $113.09 and a 200-day moving average price of $121.28.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $16.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.87 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($2.06) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.