Centric Wealth Management Boosts Stock Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Centric Wealth Management raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 6.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,309 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,313 shares during the quarter. Centric Wealth Management’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $2,323,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MRK. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.7% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 82,442,666 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,487,472,000 after acquiring an additional 5,196,914 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 14.8% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 36,682,866 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,966,029,000 after purchasing an additional 4,731,152 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 4.1% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 29,859,623 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,074,048,000 after purchasing an additional 1,186,842 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 13,566,968 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,479,071,000 after purchasing an additional 228,578 shares in the last quarter. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 12,988,942 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,416,054,000 after buying an additional 984,463 shares during the period. 76.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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 shares were sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total transaction of $124,890.00. Following the transaction, 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 filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MRK has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays raised their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Societe Generale lowered shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $104.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Monday, March 11th. Berenberg Bank lifted their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $131.33.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

Shares of MRK stock traded down $0.78 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $129.60. The stock had a trading volume of 3,254,981 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,144,771. The firm has a market capitalization of $328.28 billion, a PE ratio of 144.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.39. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $126.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $117.33. Merck & Co., Inc. has a twelve month low of $99.14 and a twelve month 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.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.13. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 14.15% and a net margin of 3.76%. The firm had revenue of $15.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.21 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.40 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.69 earnings per share 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.