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

Cahaba Wealth Management Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 4.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,056 shares of the company’s stock after selling 126 shares during the quarter. Cahaba Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $347,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.9% during the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 1,510,779 shares of the company’s stock valued at $171,564,000 after purchasing an additional 13,358 shares in the last quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 13.2% during the third quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 38,937 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,422,000 after purchasing an additional 4,536 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.2% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 9,874,714 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,121,372,000 after purchasing an additional 114,080 shares in the last quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.6% during the third quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 317,694 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,077,000 after purchasing an additional 1,884 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 80.6% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 33,675 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,169,000 after acquiring an additional 15,026 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MRK has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $143.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $125.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $131.62.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Down 1.0 %

Merck & Co., Inc. stock traded down $1.05 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $108.70. 9,523,037 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,769,570. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.47. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 12 month low of $99.14 and a 12 month high of $134.63. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $114.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $122.45. The company has a market cap of $275.32 billion, a PE ratio of 120.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.39.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.16 by $0.12. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 40.69%. The business had revenue of $16.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.87 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned ($2.06) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is currently 342.22%.

About Merck & Co., Inc.

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.