Hemenway Trust Co LLC Buys 174 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Hemenway Trust Co LLC raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,356 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 174 shares during the period. Hemenway Trust Co LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $1,062,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MRK. Savvy Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 16.5% during the third quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 7,148 shares of the company’s stock valued at $812,000 after purchasing an additional 1,013 shares in the last quarter. Winslow Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Winslow Asset Management Inc. now owns 91,236 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,361,000 after buying an additional 446 shares in the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 256.4% in the 3rd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 923 shares of the company’s stock worth $105,000 after buying an additional 664 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.7% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 6,537,142 shares of the company’s stock valued at $742,358,000 after acquiring an additional 43,578 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Apollon Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 23.4% during the third quarter. Apollon Financial LLC now owns 2,055 shares of the company’s stock valued at $233,000 after acquiring an additional 390 shares during the last quarter. 76.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 0.6 %

NYSE:MRK traded down $0.57 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $100.16. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,867,450 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,829,772. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $253.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.12, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.40. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $110.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $119.73. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1 year low of $98.60 and a 1 year high of $134.63.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $16.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.47 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 36.42% and a net margin of 19.23%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.13 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MRK. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $136.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $123.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $130.86.

Merck & Co., Inc. Company 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.