Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc. grew its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 20.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 31,611 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,352 shares during the quarter. Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $3,446,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 96,593 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,944,000 after buying an additional 1,191 shares during the period. InTrack Investment Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 7.4% in the third quarter. InTrack Investment Management Inc now owns 3,918 shares of the company’s stock worth $403,000 after acquiring an additional 270 shares in the last quarter. Mountain Pacific Investment Advisers Inc. ID grew its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 22.4% in the third quarter. Mountain Pacific Investment Advisers Inc. ID now owns 4,745 shares of the company’s stock worth $488,000 after acquiring an additional 869 shares in the last quarter. Wendell David Associates Inc. grew its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.5% in the third quarter. Wendell David Associates Inc. now owns 50,877 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,238,000 after acquiring an additional 238 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. grew its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.8% in the third quarter. Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. now owns 23,136 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,382,000 after acquiring an additional 629 shares in the last quarter. 76.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on MRK. Societe Generale downgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $104.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, March 11th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. TheStreet downgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “b+” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $125.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $131.33.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total transaction of $124,890.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 19,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,443,972.41. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 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. Corporate insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MRK traded down $1.08 on Monday, reaching $130.12. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 6,787,960 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,317,659. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $126.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $116.05. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52-week low of $99.14 and a 52-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. The stock has a market capitalization of $329.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 145.78, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.38.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 EPS 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.21 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.40 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.63 EPS for the current year.

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.