Wells Fargo & Company Lowers Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Price Target to $110.00

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) had its target price lowered by Wells Fargo & Company from $125.00 to $110.00 in a research note released on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $115.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Merck & Co., Inc. currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $129.93.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

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

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $16.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.47 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 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.13 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Merck & Co., Inc.

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 3,714.9% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 6,023,853 shares of the company’s stock worth $794,847,000 after purchasing an additional 5,865,948 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 67.6% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,954,017 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,841,233,000 after purchasing an additional 5,627,923 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the first quarter worth $724,776,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 11,876.3% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,971,554 shares of the company’s stock worth $337,450,000 after purchasing an additional 2,946,742 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its position in shares of 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 worth $308,782,000 after purchasing an additional 2,473,346 shares in the last quarter. 76.07% of the stock is 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.