Howe & Rusling Inc. Purchases 431 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Howe & Rusling Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 2.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 18,737 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 431 shares during the period. Howe & Rusling Inc.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $2,043,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 82,442,666 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,487,472,000 after purchasing an additional 5,196,914 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 4.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 31,951,714 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,289,429,000 after buying an additional 1,246,705 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 4.1% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 29,859,623 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,074,048,000 after buying an additional 1,186,842 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 12,988,942 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,416,054,000 after buying an additional 984,463 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James & Associates boosted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 9,587,605 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,045,241,000 after purchasing an additional 178,132 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total transaction of $124,890.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 19,569 shares in the company, valued at $2,443,972.41. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of the 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 23,619 shares in the company, valued at $2,991,346.35. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total transaction of $124,890.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 19,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,443,972.41. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.09% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

Shares of MRK stock opened at $129.20 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $327.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 143.12, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.39. 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 company has a 50-day simple moving average of $126.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $116.50. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52 week low of $99.14 and a 52 week high of $133.10.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $15.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.21 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 3.76% and a return on equity of 14.15%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.40 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $135.00 price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Thursday, April 18th. TD Cowen raised Merck & Co., Inc. from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $125.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $131.33.

Merck & Co., Inc. 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.