American Investment Services Inc. Purchases 10,951 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. $MRK

Key Points

• American Investment Services Inc. significantly increased its holdings in Merck & Co., owning a total of 14,671 shares valued at $1.317 million after purchasing 10,951 additional shares in Q1.
• Merck's latest financial report showed $2.13 earnings per share, surpassing the consensus estimate of $2.03, with revenue of $15.81 billion for the quarter.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.81, representing an annualized yield of 3.9%, payable on October 7th to shareholders of record.

American Investment Services Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK - Free Report) by 294.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,671 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 10,951 shares during the quarter. American Investment Services Inc.'s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $1,317,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MRK. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 252,513,381 shares of the company's stock worth $22,665,601,000 after purchasing an additional 1,417,274 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 144.6% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 49,229,283 shares of the company's stock worth $4,418,820,000 after purchasing an additional 29,104,112 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 31,377,107 shares of the company's stock worth $3,121,395,000 after purchasing an additional 4,511,742 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 21.4% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 21,547,758 shares of the company's stock worth $2,143,571,000 after purchasing an additional 3,791,737 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 18,375,974 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,828,040,000 after buying an additional 1,742,313 shares during the period. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MRK has been the subject of several recent research reports. Citigroup reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $84.00 price target (down previously from $115.00) on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald cut Merck & Co., Inc. from an "overweight" rating to a "cautious" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $99.00 to $98.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Wall Street Zen cut Merck & Co., Inc. from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $97.00 to $90.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Merck & Co., Inc. has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $107.44.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Up 1.9%

Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock traded up $1.59 on Friday, hitting $84.35. 10,479,282 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,960,206. Merck & Co., Inc. has a one year low of $73.31 and a one year high of $120.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.17. The company has a fifty day moving average of $81.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $83.31. The company has a market capitalization of $210.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 0.38.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The company reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $15.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.92 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 41.05% and a net margin of 25.79%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be given a $0.81 dividend. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. Merck & Co., Inc.'s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.92%.

About Merck & Co., Inc.

Merck & Co, Inc is a health care company, which engages in the provision of health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health, and consumer care products. It operates through the following segments: Pharmaceutical, Animal Health, and Other. The Pharmaceutical segment includes human health pharmaceutical and vaccine products.