Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. Lowers Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 11.2% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 75,031 shares of the company’s stock after selling 9,418 shares during the period. Merck & Co., Inc. accounts for 0.5% of Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest position. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $9,900,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MRK. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the 4th quarter valued at $3,108,366,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 82,442,666 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,487,472,000 after purchasing an additional 5,196,914 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 14.8% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 36,682,866 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,966,029,000 after purchasing an additional 4,731,152 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 352.2% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 3,144,632 shares of the company’s stock valued at $342,814,000 after purchasing an additional 2,449,211 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 29,914.1% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 2,410,732 shares of the company’s stock valued at $262,818,000 after purchasing an additional 2,402,700 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. TheStreet lowered shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “b+” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Berenberg Bank increased their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Societe Generale lowered shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $104.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, March 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $133.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 4.6 %

Shares of NYSE:MRK traded down $6.02 on Friday, hitting $123.80. The company had a trading volume of 57,055,458 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,215,418. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $129.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $124.13. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1 year low of $99.14 and a 1 year high of $134.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $313.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 137.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.39.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.13. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 3.76% and a return on equity of 14.05%. The firm had revenue of $15.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.21 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.40 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 17th will be given a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 17th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.49%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is 342.22%.

About Merck & Co., Inc.

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.