Spinnaker Investment Group LLC Acquires 612 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Spinnaker Investment Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 28.7% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,744 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 612 shares during the quarter. Spinnaker Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $312,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MRK. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 67.6% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,954,017 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,841,233,000 after acquiring an additional 5,627,923 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.2% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 9,874,714 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,121,372,000 after purchasing an additional 114,080 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,693,065 shares of the company’s stock worth $952,402,000 after buying an additional 64,996 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 38.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 7,530,111 shares of the company’s stock worth $855,119,000 after buying an additional 2,095,694 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 6,537,142 shares of the company’s stock valued at $742,358,000 after buying an additional 43,578 shares in 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 topic of several analyst reports. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Wolfe Research started coverage on Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Friday. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Daiwa Capital Markets downgraded Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $130.86.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

MRK stock opened at $96.31 on Friday. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1-year low of $94.48 and a 1-year high of $134.63. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $108.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $118.90. The company has a market capitalization of $243.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.19, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.15.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.07. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 19.23% and a return on equity of 36.42%. The business had revenue of $16.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.47 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.13 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.75 EPS 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.