Pflug Koory LLC Purchases 499 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. $MRK

Pflug Koory LLC boosted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 2.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,475 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 499 shares during the period. Pflug Koory LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $1,542,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. 111 Capital raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 16.5% during the 2nd quarter. 111 Capital now owns 13,706 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,085,000 after acquiring an additional 1,945 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 125,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,935,000 after acquiring an additional 1,850 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 531,644 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,085,000 after acquiring an additional 8,319 shares during the period. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 21.9% during the 2nd quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 18,139 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,436,000 after acquiring an additional 3,259 shares during the period. Finally, Barrett & Company Inc. raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 7.6% during the 2nd quarter. Barrett & Company Inc. now owns 6,698 shares of the company’s stock worth $530,000 after acquiring an additional 471 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 0.3%

MRK stock opened at $89.25 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $82.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $81.69. Merck & Co., Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $73.31 and a fifty-two week high of $111.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.42. The firm has a market cap of $222.93 billion, a PE ratio of 13.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 0.37.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The company reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.10. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 25.79% and a return on equity of 41.05%. The firm had revenue of $15.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.92 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. has set its FY 2025 guidance at 8.870-8.970 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 7th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th will be issued a $0.81 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.6%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.92%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $99.00 to $98.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced 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. Berenberg Bank cut shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $100.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $106.41.

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.