Trueblood Wealth Management LLC Invests $1.44 Million in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Trueblood Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 13,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,438,000. Merck & Co., Inc. makes up 0.9% of Trueblood Wealth Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp grew its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.9% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 118,562,086 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,766,428,000 after purchasing an additional 2,174,829 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 5,196,914 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 10.6% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 41,850,081 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,643,267,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000,816 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 103,159.7% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 39,327,490 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,363,385,000 after buying an additional 39,289,404 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 31,951,714 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,289,429,000 after buying an additional 1,246,705 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MRK has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $125.00 to $135.00 in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $122.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. TheStreet downgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “b+” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Merck & Co., Inc. presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $129.50.

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

In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of the 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 owns 23,619 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,991,346.35. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were 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 directly owns 19,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,443,972.41. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,991,346.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MRK traded up $6.23 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $131.75. 15,841,390 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,783,678. The company has a market capitalization of $333.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 941.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.50 and a beta of 0.37. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1-year low of $99.14 and a 1-year high of $133.10. The business’s 50 day moving average is $124.21 and its 200-day moving average is $112.39. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) 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 business had revenue of $14.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.49 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 0.61% and a return on equity of 9.33%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.62 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 5th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th will be given a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.34%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is 2,200.00%.

About Merck & Co., Inc.

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.