Analysts Set Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Price Target at $131.25

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $131.25.

MRK has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $135.00 price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday. Societe Generale downgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $104.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, March 11th. TD Cowen raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $125.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of MRK opened at $125.78 on Friday. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1-year low of $99.14 and a 1-year high of $133.10. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $126.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $115.18. The stock has a market cap of $318.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 898.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $14.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.49 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 0.61% and a return on equity of 9.33%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.62 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is 2,200.00%.

Insider Activity at Merck & Co., Inc.

In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,991,346.35. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total value of $124,890.00. Following the transaction, 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 SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.65, for a total transaction of $6,420,395.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,991,346.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Merck & Co., Inc.

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Bare Financial Services Inc bought a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Burkett Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. bought a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, RIA Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

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.