LS Investment Advisors LLC Grows Stake in Merck & Co., Inc. $MRK

LS Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 9.2% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 35,451 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,995 shares during the quarter. LS Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $2,806,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 144.6% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 49,229,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,418,820,000 after purchasing an additional 29,104,112 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the 1st quarter worth approximately $991,553,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 2,240.9% during the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 5,286,801 shares of the company’s stock worth $474,543,000 after acquiring an additional 5,060,959 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 9,991.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,332,446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $388,880,000 after purchasing an additional 4,289,516 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi raised its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 37.1% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 13,077,716 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,130,397,000 after purchasing an additional 3,542,036 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on MRK shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $97.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $99.00 to $98.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Berenberg Bank downgraded Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $100.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $106.41.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

NYSE MRK opened at $77.70 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $194.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.97, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.37. Merck & Co., Inc. has a twelve month low of $73.31 and a twelve month high of $114.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $82.56 and a 200 day moving average of $82.09.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The company reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $15.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.92 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 41.05% and a net margin of 25.79%. Merck & Co., Inc. has set its FY 2025 guidance at 8.870-8.970 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.81 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.2%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.92%.

Merck & Co., Inc. Profile

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.