Telos Capital Management Inc. Increases Stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Telos Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 13.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 15,671 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,897 shares during the period. Telos Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $1,708,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. increased its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 157.8% in the 4th quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 17,410 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,894,000 after buying an additional 10,658 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Scissortail Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 86.2% in the 4th quarter. Scissortail Wealth Management LLC now owns 63,294 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,900,000 after buying an additional 29,304 shares during the period. Tyche Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the 4th quarter worth about $1,436,000. Finally, HealthInvest Partners AB purchased a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the 4th quarter worth about $7,160,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MRK has been the topic of several recent research reports. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $142.00 target price (up from $139.00) on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Societe Generale cut shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $104.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, March 11th. TheStreet cut shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “b+” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price 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. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $125.00 to $135.00 in a report on Thursday, January 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $131.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.65, for a total transaction of $6,420,395.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 23,619 shares in the company, valued at $2,991,346.35. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.65, for a total value of $6,420,395.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 23,619 shares in the company, valued at $2,991,346.35. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total value of $124,890.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 19,569 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,443,972.41. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

MRK stock traded up $0.07 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $125.13. The company had a trading volume of 3,773,458 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,313,319. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $126.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $114.69. The company has a market cap of $316.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 893.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.25. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by $0.12. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 0.61% and a return on equity of 9.33%. The company had revenue of $14.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.49 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.62 EPS. Merck & Co., Inc.’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.46%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2,200.00%.

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.