Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Shares Acquired by Lane & Associates LLC

Lane & Associates LLC grew its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 52.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,935 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,689 shares during the quarter. Lane & Associates LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $560,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Palisade Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.5% in the third quarter. Palisade Asset Management LLC now owns 27,314 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,102,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares during the period. CMG Global Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 7.0% in the third quarter. CMG Global Holdings LLC now owns 4,386 shares of the company’s stock valued at $498,000 after purchasing an additional 287 shares during the period. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 19.1% in the third quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 345,225 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,204,000 after purchasing an additional 55,441 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 21.9% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 1,887,812 shares of the company’s stock valued at $214,425,000 after purchasing an additional 339,724 shares during the period. Finally, Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 7.4% in the third quarter. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. now owns 102,663 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,658,000 after purchasing an additional 7,064 shares during the period. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Friday, November 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. UBS Group lowered their target price 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. Daiwa America lowered shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $130.86.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE MRK opened at $99.18 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $107.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $117.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.36. Merck & Co., Inc. has a one year low of $94.48 and a one year high of $134.63. The firm has a market cap of $250.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.79, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.40.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $16.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.47 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 19.23% and a return on equity of 36.42%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.13 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th will be issued a $0.81 dividend. This is a boost from Merck & Co., Inc.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 16th. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.27%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 64.57%.

Merck & Co., Inc. 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.