Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC Sells 1,083 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 0.4% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 248,087 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,083 shares during the quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $28,173,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of MRK. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 10.1% during the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 55,281 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,332,000 after acquiring an additional 5,088 shares during the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 11.4% during the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 10,236 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,351,000 after acquiring an additional 1,048 shares in the last quarter. Capital Group Private Client Services Inc. grew its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 41.3% in the first quarter. Capital Group Private Client Services Inc. now owns 46,158 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,091,000 after acquiring an additional 13,499 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of 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 worth $794,847,000 after acquiring an additional 5,865,948 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Inc. CA raised its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 164.7% during the first quarter. Capital International Inc. CA now owns 95,525 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,605,000 after purchasing an additional 59,441 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $136.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $115.00 target price for the company. Daiwa Capital Markets cut Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $123.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $130.86.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock opened at $97.43 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $246.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.40. Merck & Co., Inc. has a twelve month low of $94.48 and a twelve month high of $134.63. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $107.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $118.24.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.07. The company 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.13 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.73 EPS for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be given a dividend of $0.81 per share. This is an increase from Merck & Co., Inc.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.33%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 16th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is currently 64.57%.

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.