Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA Has $167.45 Million Position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRKFree Report) by 52.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,474,544 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 505,630 shares during the quarter. Merck & Co., Inc. accounts for about 2.6% of Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA owned about 0.06% of Merck & Co., Inc. worth $167,449,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. PFW Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the first quarter worth about $212,000. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.0% during the first quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 77,833 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,270,000 after buying an additional 4,433 shares in the last quarter. Patron Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.1% during the first quarter. Patron Partners LLC now owns 10,580 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,396,000 after buying an additional 222 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 8.9% during the first quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 30,765 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,898,000 after buying an additional 2,525 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 10.0% during the first quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 247,338 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,636,000 after buying an additional 22,578 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

MRK stock traded up $0.33 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $109.73. The stock had a trading volume of 8,578,442 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,768,629. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $114.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $123.14. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52 week low of $99.14 and a 52 week high of $134.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $277.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 121.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.39.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRKGet Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.16 by $0.12. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 40.69%. The company had revenue of $16.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.87 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted ($2.06) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.88 EPS for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th were given a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.81%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is presently 342.22%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on MRK. Barclays decreased their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $125.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $143.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $133.00.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on Merck & Co., Inc.

About Merck & Co., Inc.

(Free Report)

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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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

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