Highland Capital Management LLC Sells 2,241 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Highland Capital Management LLC cut its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 0.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 290,036 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,241 shares during the quarter. Merck & Co., Inc. accounts for 2.0% of Highland Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Highland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $31,620,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Columbia Trust Co 01012016 grew its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Columbia Trust Co 01012016 now owns 16,531 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,802,000 after buying an additional 798 shares in the last quarter. OmniStar Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 15.7% during the fourth quarter. OmniStar Financial Group Inc. now owns 8,146 shares of the company’s stock worth $888,000 after buying an additional 1,105 shares in the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC grew its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 52.4% during the fourth quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 22,938 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,501,000 after buying an additional 7,890 shares in the last quarter. Roberts Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 8.4% during the fourth quarter. Roberts Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 23,097 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,518,000 after buying an additional 1,795 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Trust Co of the South bought a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. during the fourth quarter worth $2,889,000. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MRK. Barclays upped their price objective 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. Societe Generale downgraded Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $104.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, March 11th. UBS Group upped their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. StockNews.com raised Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $129.50.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MRK opened at $131.75 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $333.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 941.07, a P/E/G ratio of 0.50 and a beta of 0.37. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $124.21 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $112.39. Merck & Co., Inc. has a twelve month low of $99.14 and a twelve month high of $133.10.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $14.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.62 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total transaction of $124,890.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 19,569 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,443,972.41. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total value 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. 0.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.