MONECO Advisors LLC Acquires 203 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

MONECO Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 1.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,764 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 203 shares during the quarter. MONECO Advisors LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $1,173,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MRK. RMR Wealth Builders lifted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 24.8% in the 3rd quarter. RMR Wealth Builders now owns 20,361 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,096,000 after acquiring an additional 4,047 shares during the period. Suncoast Equity Management lifted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Suncoast Equity Management now owns 163,607 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,843,000 after buying an additional 4,252 shares during the period. Sweet Financial Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter. Sweet Financial Partners LLC now owns 20,455 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,106,000 after buying an additional 1,292 shares during the period. Toews Corp ADV bought a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $772,000. Finally, Vicus Capital lifted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 35.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vicus Capital now owns 9,165 shares of the company’s stock worth $944,000 after buying an additional 2,374 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Up 0.2 %

MRK stock opened at $129.50 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $126.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $116.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $328.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 143.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 0.38. Merck & Co., Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $99.14 and a fifty-two week high of $133.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $15.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.21 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 14.15% and a net margin of 3.76%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.40 EPS. Analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total value of $124,890.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 19,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,443,972.41. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total value of $124,890.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 19,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,443,972.41. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.65, for a total value of $6,420,395.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,991,346.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays raised their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Truist Financial raised their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. StockNews.com upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Berenberg Bank raised their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $131.33.

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.