First Heartland Consultants Inc. Has $871,000 Stock Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

First Heartland Consultants Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,670 shares of the company’s stock after selling 352 shares during the period. First Heartland Consultants Inc.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $871,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 10.1% in the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 55,281 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,332,000 after acquiring an additional 5,088 shares in the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC raised its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 11.4% in the 1st quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 10,236 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,351,000 after acquiring an additional 1,048 shares in the last quarter. Interchange Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. Interchange Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,039 shares of the company’s stock valued at $267,000 after acquiring an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. D Orazio & Associates Inc. raised its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. D Orazio & Associates Inc. now owns 4,429 shares of the company’s stock valued at $584,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zega Financial LLC acquired a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $343,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group dropped their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $123.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $136.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America dropped their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Barclays decreased 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 analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $130.86.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

MRK stock opened at $98.54 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $110.38 and its 200-day moving average is $119.73. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company has a market cap of $249.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.40. Merck & Co., Inc. has a twelve month low of $98.50 and a twelve month high of $134.63.

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