RNC Capital Management LLC Buys 1,199 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

RNC Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK – Get Rating) by 13.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 10,442 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,199 shares during the period. RNC Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $800,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.4% in the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 187,897,289 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,112,965,000 after purchasing an additional 741,796 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 49,559,078 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,722,381,000 after purchasing an additional 1,152,241 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.2% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 39,262,359 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,948,995,000 after purchasing an additional 457,650 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 17.1% in the second quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 26,289,496 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,044,534,000 after purchasing an additional 3,832,086 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 100.2% in the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 25,872,992 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,971,651,000 after purchasing an additional 12,948,754 shares in the last quarter. 72.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

MRK has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $94.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 12th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Thursday, March 31st. They set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock. SVB Leerink lowered their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $101.00 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 6th. Mizuho assumed coverage on Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Friday, April 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $100.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $82.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 6th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $90.88.

Shares of NYSE:MRK traded down $0.44 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $85.63. The stock had a trading volume of 285,558 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,335,675. The firm has a market cap of $216.46 billion, a PE ratio of 16.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.45. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $79.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $79.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. Merck & Co., Inc. has a twelve month low of $70.89 and a twelve month high of $91.40.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 3rd. The company reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.34. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 47.24% and a net margin of 26.02%. The business had revenue of $13.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.14 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.32 EPS. Merck & Co., Inc.’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 7th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.69 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 14th. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.22%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is 53.70%.

Merck & Co., Inc. Company Profile (Get Rating)

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, as well as vaccine products, such as preventive pediatric, adolescent, and adult vaccines.

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