Berenberg Bank Increases Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Price Target to $143.00

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK - Get Free Report) had its price objective boosted by equities researchers at Berenberg Bank from $140.00 to $143.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a "buy" rating on the stock. Berenberg Bank's price target points to a potential upside of 12.96% from the stock's previous close.

MRK has been the subject of a number of other reports. UBS Group increased their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Truist Financial reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $142.00 target price (up from $139.00) on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. TD Cowen raised Merck & Co., Inc. from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $125.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $135.00 target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $130.60.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of MRK stock traded down $1.40 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $126.59. The company had a trading volume of 6,282,132 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,592,293. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 12 month low of $99.14 and a 12 month high of $133.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $126.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $113.79. The company has a market cap of $320.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 904.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.51 and a beta of 0.38.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.09) by $0.12. The company had revenue of $14.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.49 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 9.33% and a net margin of 0.61%. Merck & Co., Inc.'s revenue was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.62 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Merck & Co., Inc.

In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.65, for a total transaction of $6,420,395.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 23,619 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,991,346.35. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.65, for a total value of $6,420,395.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 23,619 shares in the company, valued at $2,991,346.35. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total value of $124,890.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 19,569 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,443,972.41. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 103,159.7% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 39,327,490 shares of the company's stock worth $4,363,385,000 after acquiring an additional 39,289,404 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,108,366,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 82,442,666 shares of the company's stock valued at $8,487,472,000 after acquiring an additional 5,196,914 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 2,671.4% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,099,334 shares of the company's stock valued at $418,400,000 after acquiring an additional 4,915,334 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 14.8% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 36,682,866 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,966,029,000 after buying an additional 4,731,152 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the company's stock.

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.