IFS Advisors LLC Has $47,000 Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. $MRK

IFS Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 31.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 597 shares of the company’s stock after selling 279 shares during the period. IFS Advisors LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $47,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 252,513,381 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,665,601,000 after buying an additional 1,417,274 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 81,669,651 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,330,668,000 after buying an additional 927,621 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 144.6% during 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 buying an additional 29,104,112 shares during the period. Amundi grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 3,542,036 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. during the 1st quarter valued at about $991,553,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on MRK shares. Morgan Stanley lowered 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. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $97.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, Berenberg Bank cut Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $100.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Merck & Co., Inc. has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $106.41.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE MRK opened at $89.25 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $222.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.75, a PEG ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 0.37. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $82.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $81.61. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52 week low of $73.31 and a 52 week high of $111.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.42.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The company reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.03 by $0.10. The business 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. On average, research analysts predict that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 7th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th will be paid a $0.81 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is presently 49.92%.

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.