Merck & Co., Inc.’s (MRK) Overweight Rating Reaffirmed at Cantor Fitzgerald

Cantor Fitzgerald restated their overweight rating on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) in a report published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Cantor Fitzgerald currently has a $135.00 target price on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. TheStreet downgraded Merck & Co., Inc. from a b+ rating to a c+ rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. TD Cowen raised Merck & Co., Inc. from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $125.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Barclays lifted their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $122.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $129.50.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

Merck & Co., Inc. stock opened at $131.75 on Wednesday. Merck & Co., Inc. has a one year low of $99.14 and a one year high of $133.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.25. The business has a fifty day moving average of $124.21 and a two-hundred day moving average of $112.39. The company has a market cap of $333.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 941.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.50 and a beta of 0.37.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by $0.12. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 9.33% and a net margin of 0.61%. The company had revenue of $14.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.62 earnings per share. Merck & Co., Inc.’s quarterly revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th will be issued a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.34%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 14th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2,200.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Merck & Co., Inc.

In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 23,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,991,346.35. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. 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 transaction, the insider now directly 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.65, for a total value of $6,420,395.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,619 shares in the company, valued at $2,991,346.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Merck & Co., Inc.

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MRK. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 244,776,747 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,685,561,000 after acquiring an additional 1,236,228 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 118,562,086 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,766,428,000 after acquiring an additional 2,174,829 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 85,595,999 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,331,676,000 after acquiring an additional 3,153,333 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 10.6% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 41,850,081 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,643,267,000 after acquiring an additional 4,000,816 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 103,159.7% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 39,327,490 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,363,385,000 after acquiring an additional 39,289,404 shares in the last quarter. 76.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Merck & Co., Inc. Company 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.