Cullinan Associates Inc. Acquires 2,300 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Cullinan Associates Inc. raised its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 5.2% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 46,268 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,300 shares during the period. Cullinan Associates Inc.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $4,939,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 3,714.9% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 6,023,853 shares of the company’s stock valued at $794,847,000 after purchasing an additional 5,865,948 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 67.6% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,954,017 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,841,233,000 after acquiring an additional 5,627,923 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $724,776,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 11,876.3% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,971,554 shares of the company’s stock worth $337,450,000 after acquiring an additional 2,946,742 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 11,860.9% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 2,494,199 shares of the company’s stock valued at $308,782,000 after purchasing an additional 2,473,346 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on MRK. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $115.00 price target on the stock. Truist Financial decreased their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $143.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Bank of America dropped their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $131.62.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

NYSE MRK traded down $0.91 on Friday, reaching $104.97. The stock had a trading volume of 948,360 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,752,656. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The company has a market cap of $265.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.39. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1-year low of $99.80 and a 1-year high of $134.63. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $113.86 and a two-hundred day moving average of $121.93.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.16 by $0.12. The firm 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 40.69%. The company’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($2.06) earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

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.