CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp Raises Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp grew its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK – Get Rating) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 104,204 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,445 shares during the quarter. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $11,561,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 224,134,448 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,302,459,000 after purchasing an additional 3,081,402 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.7% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 30,079,662 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,468,037,000 after purchasing an additional 1,077,042 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.7% during the second quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 29,949,687 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,730,513,000 after purchasing an additional 214,082 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 53.8% during the second quarter. FMR LLC now owns 22,349,549 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,037,608,000 after purchasing an additional 7,816,470 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 14.2% during the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 17,026,950 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,552,347,000 after purchasing an additional 2,111,477 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.89% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on MRK. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $100.00 to $99.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $106.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 19th. Atlantic Securities raised their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $122.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 7th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $127.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 22nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $119.35.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

NYSE:MRK opened at $104.10 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $264.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.23, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.34. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $108.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $102.15. Merck & Co., Inc. has a twelve month low of $78.63 and a twelve month high of $115.49.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The company reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.56 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $13.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.66 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 24.49% and a return on equity of 43.47%. The company’s revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.80 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 15th will be given a $0.73 dividend. This represents a $2.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 14th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Sanat Chattopadhyay sold 83,994 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.29, for a total value of $9,431,686.26. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,312,555. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, insider Sanat Chattopadhyay sold 83,994 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.29, for a total transaction of $9,431,686.26. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,312,555. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Steven Mizell sold 4,436 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $104.25, for a total transaction of $462,453.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 39,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,159,575. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 100,245 shares of company stock worth $11,168,256. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Merck & Co., Inc. Profile

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Merck & Co, Inc is a health care company, which engages in the provision of health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health, and consumer care products. It operates through the following segments: Pharmaceutical, Animal Health, and Other. The Pharmaceutical segment includes human health pharmaceutical and vaccine products.