Trajan Wealth LLC Acquires 6,451 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Key Points

• Trajan Wealth LLC increased its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 13.8%, acquiring an additional 6,451 shares, bringing their total holdings to 53,320 shares valued at approximately $4.79 million.
• Merck reported a quarterly EPS of $2.13, surpassing analyst estimates, with total revenue of $15.81 billion, slightly below expectations.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.81 per share, with an annualized yield of 4.0%, to be paid to investors on October 7th.

Trajan Wealth LLC increased its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK - Free Report) by 13.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 53,320 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 6,451 shares during the period. Trajan Wealth LLC's holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $4,786,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 29.5% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 38,278 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,808,000 after buying an additional 8,710 shares in the last quarter. American Assets Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the 4th quarter valued at $398,000. Savvy Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 7,343 shares of the company's stock valued at $730,000 after buying an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. Mariner LLC increased its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 1,795,029 shares of the company's stock valued at $178,542,000 after buying an additional 121,709 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CreativeOne Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 28.2% in the 4th quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 31,336 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,117,000 after buying an additional 6,886 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on MRK. Guggenheim restated a "buy" rating and issued a $115.00 price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $84.00 price objective (down previously from $115.00) on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $99.00 to $98.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Wall Street Zen cut Merck & Co., Inc. from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald cut Merck & Co., Inc. from an "overweight" rating to a "cautious" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Merck & Co., Inc. presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $107.44.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

NYSE:MRK traded up $2.37 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $82.67. The stock had a trading volume of 11,041,999 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,989,376. Merck & Co., Inc. has a twelve month low of $73.31 and a twelve month high of $120.30. The stock has a market cap of $206.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.74, a PEG ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.38. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $80.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $83.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.42.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The company reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.03 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $15.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.92 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 25.79% and a return on equity of 41.05%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.81 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.9%. 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.