Mattern Wealth Management LLC Has $730,000 Stock Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Mattern Wealth Management LLC lowered its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 53.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,339 shares of the company’s stock after selling 8,431 shares during the quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $730,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp increased its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 119,026,412 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,606,360,000 after acquiring an additional 1,536,474 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 4.6% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 75,809,383 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,608,914,000 after buying an additional 3,327,404 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 59,155,004 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,696,060,000 after buying an additional 2,134,296 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,807,293 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,135,785,000 after acquiring an additional 514,060 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 17,756,021 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,016,374,000 after acquiring an additional 309,656 shares in the last quarter. 76.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on MRK. Guggenheim decreased their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $137.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Wolfe Research started coverage on Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Friday, November 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $121.00 target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $123.00 to $113.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $123.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of MRK opened at $97.99 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $247.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.39. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $99.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $108.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.36. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52 week low of $94.48 and a 52 week high of $134.63.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $16.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.47 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 19.23% and a return on equity of 36.42%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.13 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.31%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is 67.92%.

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.