Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Purchases 92,146 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 32.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 376,302 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 92,146 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $41,024,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rakuten Securities Inc. bought a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. RIA Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 180.2% in the third quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 311 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. AlphaMark Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. during the 4th quarter worth $42,000. 76.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on MRK. Societe Generale lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $104.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, March 11th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of 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 report on Thursday, January 4th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $131.33.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

MRK traded down $0.75 on Friday, reaching $127.51. The stock had a trading volume of 6,218,206 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,239,238. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $126.49 and a 200-day moving average of $116.58. The company has a market capitalization of $322.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 141.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.39. Merck & Co., Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $99.14 and a fifty-two week high of $133.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

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

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 sale, the insider now owns 19,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,443,972.41. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.09% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.