Sather Financial Group Inc Has $814,000 Stock Position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Sather Financial Group Inc reduced its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 7,167 shares of the company’s stock after selling 284 shares during the period. Sather Financial Group Inc’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $814,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Schear Investment Advisers LLC grew its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 17.4% during the 3rd quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 10,582 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,202,000 after acquiring an additional 1,565 shares in the last quarter. Spinnaker Investment Group LLC boosted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 28.7% during the third quarter. Spinnaker Investment Group LLC now owns 2,744 shares of the company’s stock worth $312,000 after purchasing an additional 612 shares during the period. Accredited Investors Inc. boosted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.9% during the third quarter. Accredited Investors Inc. now owns 11,834 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,344,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the period. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 4.5% during the third quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 34,997 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,974,000 after purchasing an additional 1,505 shares during the period. Finally, Maxwell Wealth Strategies Inc. boosted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 22.9% during the third quarter. Maxwell Wealth Strategies Inc. now owns 25,279 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,871,000 after purchasing an additional 4,702 shares during the period. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MRK. Guggenheim dropped their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $137.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America decreased their target price on 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. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $115.00 target price on the stock. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Friday. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $125.00 to $110.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $130.86.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock opened at $96.31 on Friday. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1 year low of $94.48 and a 1 year high of $134.63. The firm has a market cap of $243.63 billion, a PE ratio of 20.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.40. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $108.84 and a 200-day moving average price of $118.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.15.

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

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.