Fulton Breakefield Broenniman LLC Acquires 236 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. $MRK

Fulton Breakefield Broenniman LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 7,948 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 236 shares during the period. Fulton Breakefield Broenniman LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $629,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Little House Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.2% in the second quarter. Little House Capital LLC now owns 25,236 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,998,000 after acquiring an additional 308 shares during the last quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 8.2% in the first quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,039 shares of the company’s stock valued at $452,000 after acquiring an additional 382 shares during the last quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC boosted its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 20.4% in the first quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 19,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,739,000 after acquiring an additional 3,282 shares during the last quarter. Quilter Plc boosted its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 5.6% in the first quarter. Quilter Plc now owns 1,180,797 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,988,000 after acquiring an additional 62,933 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH boosted its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 9.8% in the second quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 888,415 shares of the company’s stock valued at $70,327,000 after acquiring an additional 79,529 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MRK has been the topic of several analyst reports. Berenberg Bank lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the company from $100.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Wells Fargo & Company cut 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. Morgan Stanley cut 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, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $104.31.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 1.4%

NYSE MRK opened at $86.39 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $215.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.31, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.17. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $83.15 and its 200-day moving average is $81.56. Merck & Co., Inc. has a one year low of $73.31 and a one year high of $111.58.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The company reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $15.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 7th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th were given a $0.81 dividend. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 15th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.92%.

Merck & Co., Inc. Company 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.