Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC Raises Position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 161.5% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 5,101 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,150 shares during the period. Cranbrook Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $632,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 85,595,999 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,331,676,000 after acquiring an additional 3,153,333 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada increased its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 12.8% in the 4th quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 14,972,074 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,632,255,000 after acquiring an additional 1,696,151 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 67.6% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,954,017 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,841,233,000 after acquiring an additional 5,627,923 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 13,551,242 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,477,357,000 after buying an additional 212,852 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 12,050,924 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,313,741,000 after buying an additional 253,981 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on MRK shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $125.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Evercore ISI raised Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $145.00 to $142.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $134.58.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

NYSE:MRK opened at $117.96 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $298.77 billion, a PE ratio of 131.07, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.39. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1 year low of $99.14 and a 1 year high of $134.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $118.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $124.50.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $16.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.87 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 40.69% and a net margin of 21.99%. The company’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($2.06) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.01 EPS for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th will be paid a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.61%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.