Tectonic Advisors LLC Acquires 6,817 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Tectonic Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 11.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 63,984 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,817 shares during the period. Tectonic Advisors LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $7,266,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MRK. Dakota Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 9.3% in the third quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 82,257 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,342,000 after purchasing an additional 6,968 shares in the last quarter. Woodard & Co. Asset Management Group Inc. ADV increased its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 13.4% in the third quarter. Woodard & Co. Asset Management Group Inc. ADV now owns 12,832 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,457,000 after purchasing an additional 1,518 shares in the last quarter. apricus wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.1% in the third quarter. apricus wealth LLC now owns 21,647 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,458,000 after purchasing an additional 455 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 59.9% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,149,937 shares of the company’s stock worth $244,147,000 after purchasing an additional 805,571 shares in the last quarter. Finally, IFM Investors Pty Ltd increased its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.7% in the third quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 531,758 shares of the company’s stock worth $60,386,000 after purchasing an additional 3,586 shares in the last quarter. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $125.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Truist Financial cut their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $143.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $131.62.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MRK opened at $105.88 on Friday. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52 week low of $99.80 and a 52 week high of $134.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $268.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.64, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.39. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $113.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $121.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80.

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, topping the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 40.69%. The business’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($2.06) EPS. On average, analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. 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.