Northside Capital Management LLC Trims Stock Position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Northside Capital Management LLC lowered its position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 7.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,470 shares of the company’s stock after selling 200 shares during the period. Northside Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $280,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 13.3% in the 1st quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. now owns 14,677 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,937,000 after acquiring an additional 1,722 shares during the last quarter. Red Spruce Capital LLC grew its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Red Spruce Capital LLC now owns 39,161 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,167,000 after buying an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Triangle Securities Wealth Management increased its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.6% during the first quarter. Triangle Securities Wealth Management now owns 16,104 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,125,000 after buying an additional 408 shares in the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC lifted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.8% in the first quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 11,027 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,455,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Johnson & White Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.6% during the first quarter. Johnson & White Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,112 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,070,000 after acquiring an additional 280 shares during the last quarter. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on MRK. 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 report on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley upped 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 research note on Thursday, July 11th. Truist Financial cut their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $143.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Wolfe Research raised Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $125.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $131.62.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Down 1.0 %

NYSE MRK traded down $1.05 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $108.70. The company had a trading volume of 9,523,037 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,769,570. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $114.31 and its 200 day moving average is $122.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.22. Merck & Co., Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $99.14 and a fifty-two week high of $134.63. The company has a market capitalization of $275.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 120.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.39.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.16 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $16.10 billion during 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 for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($2.06) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.83%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is currently 342.22%.

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.