M. Kraus & Co Sells 250 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

M. Kraus & Co trimmed its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 11,954 shares of the company’s stock after selling 250 shares during the quarter. M. Kraus & Co’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $1,357,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 4.1% during the third quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 6,751 shares of the company’s stock valued at $767,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.2% during the third quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 14,476 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,644,000 after buying an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.5% during the third quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 4,399 shares of the company’s stock valued at $500,000 after buying an additional 269 shares during the last quarter. Novare Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 13.3% in the third quarter. Novare Capital Management LLC now owns 188,165 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,368,000 after acquiring an additional 22,077 shares during the period. Finally, ORG Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 71.2% in the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 7,184 shares of the company’s stock worth $816,000 after acquiring an additional 2,988 shares during the period. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MRK has been the topic of a number of research reports. Evercore ISI raised Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Barclays dropped their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. Bank of America reduced their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $133.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of MRK traded up $0.20 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $109.93. 3,278,434 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,740,915. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52-week low of $99.14 and a 52-week high of $134.63. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $114.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $123.08. The firm has a market cap of $278.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 121.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.16 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $16.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.87 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 40.69% and a net margin of 21.99%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted ($2.06) earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.80%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 342.22%.

Merck & Co., Inc. Company Profile

Merck & Co, Inc operates as a healthcare company worldwide. It operates through two segments, Pharmaceutical and Animal Health. The Pharmaceutical segment offers human health pharmaceutical products in the areas of oncology, hospital acute care, immunology, neuroscience, virology, cardiovascular, and diabetes under the Keytruda, Bridion, Adempas, Lagevrio, Belsomra, Simponi, and Januvia brands, as well as vaccine products consisting of preventive pediatric, adolescent, and adult vaccines under the Gardasil/Gardasil 9, ProQuad, M-M-R II, Varivax, RotaTeq, Live Oral, Vaxneuvance, Pneumovax 23, and Vaqta names.