Curated Wealth Partners LLC Takes $211,000 Position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Curated Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 1,708 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $148.00 to $142.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Barclays lowered their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $145.00 to $142.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Evercore ISI upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $134.58.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

NYSE:MRK traded up $0.63 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $114.55. 5,914,321 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,698,703. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $125.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $126.29. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1-year low of $99.14 and a 1-year high of $134.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $290.13 billion, a PE ratio of 127.28, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.38.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $16.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.87 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 41.67%. The business’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($2.06) EPS. Research analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 7th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th will be issued a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 16th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is 342.22%.

Merck & Co., Inc. Company 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.