Cox Capital Mgt LLC Has $2.09 Million Stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Cox Capital Mgt LLC cut its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,389 shares of the company’s stock after selling 180 shares during the quarter. Cox Capital Mgt LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $2,088,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 85,595,999 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,331,676,000 after purchasing an additional 3,153,333 shares during the period. Capital World Investors grew its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 67.6% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,954,017 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,841,233,000 after buying an additional 5,627,923 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 13,551,242 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,477,357,000 after acquiring an additional 212,852 shares during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 12,050,924 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,313,741,000 after acquiring an additional 253,981 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.7% during the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,362,812 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,102,135,000 after acquiring an additional 56,644 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Barclays cut their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 7th. Wolfe Research upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Evercore ISI upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $143.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Merck & Co., Inc. currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $133.00.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

Merck & Co., Inc. stock traded up $0.33 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $109.73. 8,578,442 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,768,629. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $114.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $123.16. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. Merck & Co., Inc. has a one year low of $99.14 and a one year high of $134.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $277.93 billion, a PE ratio of 20.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.39.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.16 by $0.12. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 40.69% and a net margin of 21.99%. The company had revenue of $16.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.87 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($2.06) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 57.14%.

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.