Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. Purchases 665 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 3.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 21,538 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 665 shares during the quarter. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $2,348,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. grew its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 175,716 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,090,000 after acquiring an additional 3,086 shares during the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 20.0% during the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 59,538 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,130,000 after acquiring an additional 9,903 shares during the last quarter. Fundamentum LLC grew its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Fundamentum LLC now owns 18,947 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,951,000 after acquiring an additional 1,100 shares during the last quarter. Talbot Financial LLC grew its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Talbot Financial LLC now owns 79,632 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,198,000 after acquiring an additional 361 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Windsor Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 8.4% during the 3rd quarter. Windsor Wealth Management Inc. now owns 3,140 shares of the company’s stock worth $323,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total transaction 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.09% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:MRK traded down $0.75 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $127.51. The stock had a trading volume of 6,221,928 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,932,243. The firm has a market cap of $322.99 billion, a PE ratio of 141.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.39. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $126.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $116.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. Merck & Co., Inc. has a twelve month low of $99.14 and a twelve month high of $133.10.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.13. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 3.76% and a return on equity of 14.15%. The business had revenue of $15.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.21 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.40 EPS. Merck & Co., Inc.’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective 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. TheStreet downgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “b+” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Merck & Co., Inc. currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $131.33.

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.