Iowa State Bank Reduces Stock Position in Merck & Co., Inc. $MRK

Iowa State Bank reduced its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 2.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 28,276 shares of the company’s stock after selling 857 shares during the period. Iowa State Bank’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $2,238,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 252,513,381 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,665,601,000 after acquiring an additional 1,417,274 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.1% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 81,669,651 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,330,668,000 after acquiring an additional 927,621 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 144.6% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 49,229,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,418,820,000 after acquiring an additional 29,104,112 shares during the period. Amundi grew its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 37.1% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 13,077,716 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,130,397,000 after buying an additional 3,542,036 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. during the first quarter valued at approximately $991,553,000. 76.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MRK has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $99.00 to $98.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Berenberg Bank downgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $100.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $97.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $106.41.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock opened at $89.25 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.17. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1 year low of $73.31 and a 1 year high of $111.58. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $82.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $81.52. The stock has a market cap of $222.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.75, a PEG ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 0.37.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The company reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.03 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $15.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.92 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 25.79% and a return on equity of 41.05%. Merck & Co., Inc. has set its FY 2025 guidance at 8.870-8.970 EPS. As a group, 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be given a dividend of $0.81 per share. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.92%.

Merck & Co., Inc. Company Profile

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.