Saturna Capital Corp Sells 800,259 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Saturna Capital Corp reduced its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 84.6% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 145,223 shares of the company’s stock after selling 800,259 shares during the quarter. Saturna Capital Corp’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $13,035,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 29.5% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 38,278 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,808,000 after acquiring an additional 8,710 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 39.4% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 15,479 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,540,000 after acquiring an additional 4,373 shares during the period. American Assets Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the fourth quarter worth approximately $398,000. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 1,261,044 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,449,000 after acquiring an additional 4,002 shares during the period. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 29.9% in the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 1,218,805 shares of the company’s stock worth $121,247,000 after acquiring an additional 280,776 shares during the period. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on MRK. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $99.00 to $98.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Wall Street Zen lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $84.00 price objective (down from $115.00) on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from an “overweight” rating to a “cautious” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $115.00 price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $108.69.

Insider Activity at Merck & Co., Inc.

In other news, SVP Dalton E. Smart III sold 4,262 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock in a transaction on Friday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.76, for a total value of $352,723.12. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 7,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $643,707.28. The trade was a 35.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Down 1.0%

Shares of MRK opened at $81.59 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $79.29 and its 200 day moving average is $86.02. The company has a market capitalization of $204.87 billion, a PE ratio of 11.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.39. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 12-month low of $73.31 and a 12-month high of $128.73. The company has a current ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.06. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 43.23% and a net margin of 27.27%. The business had revenue of $15.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.07 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th were given a $0.81 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.97%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.16%.

About Merck & Co., Inc.

Merck & Co, Inc is a health care company, which engages in the provision of health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health, and consumer care products. It operates through the following segments: Pharmaceutical, Animal Health, and Other. The Pharmaceutical segment includes human health pharmaceutical and vaccine products.