Coastline Trust Co Buys 941 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Coastline Trust Co lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 37,440 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 941 shares during the period. Coastline Trust Co’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $4,252,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 67.6% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,954,017 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,841,233,000 after buying an additional 5,627,923 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.2% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 9,874,714 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,121,372,000 after acquiring an additional 114,080 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.9% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,693,065 shares of the company’s stock worth $952,402,000 after purchasing an additional 64,996 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 38.6% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 7,530,111 shares of the company’s stock worth $855,119,000 after purchasing an additional 2,095,694 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 6,537,142 shares of the company’s stock valued at $742,358,000 after purchasing an additional 43,578 shares during the last quarter. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America reduced their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $123.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Friday. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Guggenheim dropped their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $137.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Daiwa America cut shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Merck & Co., Inc. has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $130.86.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of MRK stock opened at $96.30 on Friday. Merck & Co., Inc. has a twelve month low of $94.48 and a twelve month high of $134.63. The stock has a market cap of $243.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.40. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $108.84 and a 200 day moving average of $118.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 19.23% and a return on equity of 36.42%. The company had revenue of $16.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.47 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.13 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.75 EPS for the current year.

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.