TRUE Private Wealth Advisors Has $604,000 Stock Position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

TRUE Private Wealth Advisors reduced its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 3.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,544 shares of the company’s stock after selling 225 shares during the quarter. TRUE Private Wealth Advisors’ holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $604,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Scissortail Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 86.2% during the 4th quarter. Scissortail Wealth Management LLC now owns 63,294 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,900,000 after purchasing an additional 29,304 shares in the last quarter. Tyche Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,436,000. HealthInvest Partners AB acquired a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. in the fourth quarter valued at about $7,160,000. Allen Capital Group LLC boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Allen Capital Group LLC now owns 10,825 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,180,000 after buying an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 1,282,303 shares of the company’s stock valued at $139,797,000 after buying an additional 50,423 shares in the last quarter. 76.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Up 0.2 %

MRK stock opened at $125.36 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $317.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 895.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.38. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $126.20 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $114.76. 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 1-year low of $99.14 and a 1-year high of $133.10.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $14.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.49 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 9.33% and a net margin of 0.61%. The business’s revenue was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.62 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.57 EPS for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date 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 (DPR) is 2,200.00%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on MRK. TheStreet lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from a “b+” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $142.00 price objective (up from $139.00) on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. StockNews.com upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Barclays raised their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $131.25.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total value of $124,890.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 19,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,443,972.41. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 23,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,991,346.35. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing 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 dated 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 sale, the insider now directly 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 insiders.

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.