Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Has $51.80 Million Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK - Free Report) by 11.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 475,137 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 48,596 shares during the quarter. Merck & Co., Inc. makes up about 0.9% of Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund's holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund's holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $51,799,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MRK. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 19,166 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,089,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 16,579 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,807,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 6,158 shares of the company's stock valued at $671,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 4,811 shares of the company's stock valued at $524,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bell Bank lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Bell Bank now owns 9,235 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,007,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Merck & Co., Inc.

In other news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 23,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,991,346.35. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, 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 sale, the insider now owns 19,569 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,443,972.41. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.65, for a total value of $6,420,395.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,991,346.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.09% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MRK. Barclays upped their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. TD Cowen raised Merck & Co., Inc. from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $125.00 to $135.00 in a report on Thursday, January 4th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. TheStreet lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from a "b+" rating to a "c+" rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Berenberg Bank upped their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $131.25.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

NYSE:MRK traded up $1.16 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $126.94. 7,787,095 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,310,124. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $126.21 and a two-hundred day moving average of $115.35. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 12 month low of $99.14 and a 12 month high of $133.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $321.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 906.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

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

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.43%. Merck & Co., Inc.'s payout ratio is 2,200.00%.

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.

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