Thomasville National Bank Decreases Stock Position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Thomasville National Bank decreased its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 47,496 shares of the company’s stock after selling 315 shares during the period. Thomasville National Bank’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $5,394,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Scarborough Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the fourth quarter worth approximately $63,000. Northwest Bank & Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the 4th quarter valued at $67,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the 4th quarter worth $188,000. Twin Focus Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the fourth quarter worth $301,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 13,551,242 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,477,357,000 after buying an additional 212,852 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wolfe Research raised Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Evercore ISI upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $125.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Merck & Co., Inc. currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $133.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Up 0.3 %

MRK stock opened at $109.73 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $277.92 billion, a PE ratio of 121.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a fifty day moving average of $114.59 and a 200-day moving average of $123.08. 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. has a one year low of $99.14 and a one year high of $134.63.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.12. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 40.69%. The firm had revenue of $16.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.87 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($2.06) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.88 EPS for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were paid a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.81%. 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.