Brokerages Set Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) PT at $129.14

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the fifteen analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $129.50.

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on MRK shares. TD Cowen raised Merck & Co., Inc. from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $125.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Barclays increased their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd.

Insider Buying and Selling at Merck & Co., Inc.

In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.65, for a total value of $6,420,395.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 23,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,991,346.35. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total transaction of $124,890.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 19,569 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,443,972.41. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.65, for a total transaction of $6,420,395.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 23,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,991,346.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Merck & Co., Inc.

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 244,776,747 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,685,561,000 after buying an additional 1,236,228 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 118,562,086 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,766,428,000 after buying an additional 2,174,829 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 85,595,999 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,331,676,000 after purchasing an additional 3,153,333 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 10.6% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 41,850,081 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,643,267,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000,816 shares during the period. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 103,159.7% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 39,327,490 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,363,385,000 after purchasing an additional 39,289,404 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

NYSE MRK opened at $131.75 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $124.21 and its 200 day moving average price is $112.39. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1 year low of $99.14 and a 1 year high of $133.10. The company has a market cap of $333.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 941.07, a PEG ratio of 0.50 and a beta of 0.37.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.12. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 9.33% and a net margin of 0.61%. The firm had revenue of $14.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.62 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be issued a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.34%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is 2,200.00%.

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.