JMG Financial Group Ltd. Has $231,000 Stock Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

JMG Financial Group Ltd. cut its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 24.6% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,033 shares of the company’s stock after selling 663 shares during the period. JMG Financial Group Ltd.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $231,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MRK. Brookstone Capital Management increased its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 7.1% in the 1st quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 64,476 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,508,000 after purchasing an additional 4,296 shares during the last quarter. Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC bought a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. during the first quarter valued at approximately $106,000. Sovereign Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 12.3% in the first quarter. Sovereign Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,905 shares of the company’s stock worth $647,000 after purchasing an additional 539 shares during the period. Sunpointe LLC grew its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 9.8% in the 1st quarter. Sunpointe LLC now owns 4,539 shares of the company’s stock valued at $602,000 after buying an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GoalVest Advisory LLC increased its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 5.3% in the 1st quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC now owns 11,659 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,538,000 after buying an additional 590 shares during the period. 76.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays reduced their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Wolfe Research raised Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $131.62.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of MRK opened at $106.38 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $113.86 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $121.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.47. The company has a market cap of $269.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 118.20, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.39. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52-week low of $99.80 and a 52-week high of $134.63.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.16 by $0.12. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 40.69%. The firm had revenue of $16.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.87 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($2.06) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.88 EPS for the current fiscal 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.