Johnson & White Wealth Management LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Johnson & White Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 7.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,677 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 637 shares during the quarter. Johnson & White Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $960,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MRK. Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. during the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. AM Squared Ltd purchased a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. during the third quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the 3rd quarter valued at $36,000. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on MRK shares. Daiwa Capital Markets cut shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Daiwa America cut Merck & Co., Inc. from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. BMO Capital Markets lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $136.00 to $105.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $123.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $123.67.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Down 1.3 %

MRK opened at $99.70 on Wednesday. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 12 month low of $94.48 and a 12 month high of $134.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $100.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $110.19. The company has a market cap of $252.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.39.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $16.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.47 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.13 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.73 EPS for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.81 per share. This is a positive change from Merck & Co., Inc.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.25%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is currently 67.92%.

About Merck & Co., Inc.

Merck & Co, Inc is a health care company, which engages in the provision of health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health, and consumer care products. It operates through the following segments: Pharmaceutical, Animal Health, and Other. The Pharmaceutical segment includes human health pharmaceutical and vaccine products.