Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Wolfe Research

Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) in a report published on Friday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm issued a peer perform rating on the stock.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on MRK. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $125.00 to $110.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Daiwa America downgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $115.00 price objective on the stock. Daiwa Capital Markets lowered shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $123.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $130.86.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

Shares of MRK stock opened at $96.56 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $244.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.40. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $108.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $118.60. Merck & Co., Inc. has a one year low of $94.48 and a one year high of $134.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.15.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.47 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 36.42% and a net margin of 19.23%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.13 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.75 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Merck & Co., Inc.

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MRK. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 63,101 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,211,000 after acquiring an additional 8,985 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,837,354 shares of the company’s stock valued at $208,649,000 after purchasing an additional 62,047 shares during the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 30.2% in the third quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 246,414 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,983,000 after purchasing an additional 57,106 shares during the period. AMF Tjanstepension AB raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 114.2% in the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 802,384 shares of the company’s stock worth $91,205,000 after purchasing an additional 427,831 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 5.3% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,973,364 shares of the company’s stock worth $337,655,000 after purchasing an additional 150,873 shares during the period. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.