Meyer Handelman Co. Buys 3,738 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Meyer Handelman Co. raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 1.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 361,973 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 3,738 shares during the quarter. Merck & Co., Inc. accounts for about 1.4% of Meyer Handelman Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 20th biggest position. Meyer Handelman Co.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $41,106,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Childress Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Childress Capital Advisors LLC now owns 11,398 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,243,000 after buying an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. purchased a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. during the 4th quarter valued at $64,225,000. SageView Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 94.1% during the 4th quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 35,032 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,819,000 after acquiring an additional 16,983 shares during the period. Winslow Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Winslow Asset Management Inc. now owns 92,906 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,129,000 after buying an additional 784 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. in the fourth quarter worth about $507,000. 76.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Barclays decreased their price target 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. Wolfe Research raised Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $125.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $133.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

NYSE MRK opened at $109.71 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $114.59 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $123.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $277.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 12-month low of $99.14 and a 12-month high of $134.63.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $16.10 billion for 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($2.06) EPS. Analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were given a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is presently 57.14%.

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.