Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp Cuts Stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp reduced its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 0.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 702,746 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,094 shares during the quarter. Merck & Co., Inc. accounts for about 1.2% of Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $79,805,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. during the 2nd quarter valued at $511,000. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 73.8% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 18,649 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,461,000 after purchasing an additional 7,916 shares during the period. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 37.2% during the 2nd quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. now owns 5,045 shares of the company’s stock valued at $625,000 after purchasing an additional 1,367 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management lifted its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 65,553 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,252,000 after purchasing an additional 1,077 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gradient Investments LLC boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 41.1% in the 2nd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 5,611 shares of the company’s stock worth $695,000 after purchasing an additional 1,634 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on MRK. Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $115.00 price objective for the company. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $136.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and issued a $121.00 price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Merck & Co., Inc. presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $129.20.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of MRK stock opened at $101.27 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $103.41 and a 200 day moving average of $115.15. 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. has a 1-year low of $94.48 and a 1-year high of $134.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $256.18 billion, a PE ratio of 21.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.39.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. 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 the consensus estimate of $16.47 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.13 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be given a dividend of $0.81 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 16th. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.20%. This is a boost from Merck & Co., Inc.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.57%.

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.