Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Trading Down 1% – Here’s What Happened

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)’s stock price traded down 1% on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $99.44 and last traded at $99.70. 3,449,376 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 61% from the average session volume of 8,834,670 shares. The stock had previously closed at $100.73.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $136.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Daiwa America lowered shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $130.86.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Down 0.1 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $248.81 billion, a PE ratio of 20.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.40. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $109.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $119.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $16.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.47 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 19.23% and a return on equity of 36.42%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.13 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.3% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 1,102,540 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,204,000 after purchasing an additional 34,715 shares during the period. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.9% during the third quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp now owns 157,390 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,873,000 after purchasing an additional 1,333 shares during the period. Kingfisher Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.3% during the third quarter. Kingfisher Capital LLC now owns 5,706 shares of the company’s stock worth $648,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the period. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 9.0% during the third quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 48,074 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,459,000 after purchasing an additional 3,970 shares during the period. Finally, Centric Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.6% during the third quarter. Centric Wealth Management now owns 23,828 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,706,000 after purchasing an additional 379 shares during the period. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.