Fullcircle Wealth LLC Sells 2,169 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Fullcircle Wealth LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 24.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,626 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,169 shares during the quarter. Fullcircle Wealth LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $691,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MRK. Patron Partners LLC raised its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Patron Partners LLC now owns 10,580 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,396,000 after acquiring an additional 222 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. boosted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 10.0% in the 1st quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 247,338 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,636,000 after purchasing an additional 22,578 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 63,101 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,211,000 after purchasing an additional 8,985 shares during the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 114.2% in the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 802,384 shares of the company’s stock worth $91,205,000 after purchasing an additional 427,831 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc bought a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the 1st quarter worth $48,921,000. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on MRK. Barclays dropped their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 7th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $136.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Citigroup reduced their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Bank of America reduced their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $143.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $129.93.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

NYSE MRK traded down $0.44 during trading on Friday, reaching $101.88. 10,180,978 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,858,824. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $112.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $120.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $258.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.36, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.22. Merck & Co., Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $98.60 and a fifty-two week high of $134.63.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.07. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 40.69% and a net margin of 21.99%. The firm had revenue of $16.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.47 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.13 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.