Mayfair Advisory Group LLC Has $659,000 Stock Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Mayfair Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 3.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,992 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $659,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MRK. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Bare Financial Services Inc bought a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Burkett Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, RIA Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on MRK. Societe Generale downgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $104.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, March 11th. Argus raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target 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. Finally, TheStreet lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from a “b+” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $133.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MRK traded down $6.02 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $123.80. 57,055,458 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,215,418. Merck & Co., Inc. has a twelve month low of $99.14 and a twelve month high of $134.63. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $129.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $124.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.25. The company has a market cap of $313.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 137.56, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.39.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.13. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 14.05% and a net margin of 3.76%. The business had revenue of $15.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.21 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.40 EPS. Merck & Co., Inc.’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 8th. Investors of record on Monday, June 17th will be given a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 17th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.49%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 342.22%.

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.