Philip James Wealth Mangement LLC Purchases New Position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Philip James Wealth Mangement LLC acquired a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 45,357 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,151,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MRK. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 67.6% in 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. Raymond James & Associates raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.2% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 9,874,714 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,121,372,000 after buying an additional 114,080 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.9% during the second 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 period. Swedbank AB increased its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 38.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 7,530,111 shares of the company’s stock valued at $855,119,000 after acquiring an additional 2,095,694 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 6,355,950 shares of the company’s stock worth $721,782,000 after acquiring an additional 518,270 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on MRK shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $125.00 to $110.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Evercore ISI raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $129.80.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

MRK traded up $0.39 during trading on Friday, reaching $101.56. 574,217 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,815,160. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The company has a market capitalization of $257.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 0.40. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1 year low of $98.60 and a 1 year high of $134.63. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $111.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $120.33.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.07. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 37.32% and a net margin of 19.23%. The firm had revenue of $16.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.47 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm 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 anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.76 earnings per share for the current 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.