Hartford Funds Management Co LLC Has $36,000 Stock Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. $MRK

Hartford Funds Management Co LLC decreased its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 96.6% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 460 shares of the company’s stock after selling 12,929 shares during the period. Hartford Funds Management Co LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $36,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Little House Capital LLC raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 308 shares in the last quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 8.2% during the first quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,039 shares of the company’s stock worth $452,000 after purchasing an additional 382 shares during the last quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC increased its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 20.4% in the 1st quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 19,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,739,000 after purchasing an additional 3,282 shares during the last quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 9.8% during the 2nd quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 888,415 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,327,000 after buying an additional 79,529 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amplius Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 117.4% during the 2nd quarter. Amplius Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,165 shares of the company’s stock worth $488,000 after buying an additional 3,329 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP David Michael Williams sold 8,614 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.59, for a total transaction of $720,044.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 24,578 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,054,475.02. This represents a 25.95% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on MRK shares. Berenberg Bank cut Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $100.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $97.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $98.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $104.47.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

MRK stock opened at $86.34 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $84.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $82.08. The firm has a market cap of $214.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.30, a PEG ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a quick ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 1.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 12-month low of $73.31 and a 12-month high of $105.07.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $2.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $17.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 25.79% and a return on equity of 41.05%. The business’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.57 earnings per share. Merck & Co., Inc. has set its FY 2025 guidance at 8.930-8.980 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current year.

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.