Hilltop Holdings Inc. Grows Stock Position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Hilltop Holdings Inc. boosted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 4.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 42,867 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,656 shares during the quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $4,673,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MRK. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC grew its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 3,477.6% in the 3rd quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC now owns 10,232 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,053,000 after acquiring an additional 9,946 shares during the last quarter. Smithfield Trust Co boosted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 286.2% during the third quarter. Smithfield Trust Co now owns 122,855 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,648,000 after purchasing an additional 91,040 shares during the period. Phoenix Wealth Advisors grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.4% in the third quarter. Phoenix Wealth Advisors now owns 28,767 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,962,000 after purchasing an additional 672 shares during the last quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC increased its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 37.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 57,526 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,922,000 after buying an additional 15,529 shares during the period. Finally, Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH increased its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 562,322 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,891,000 after buying an additional 10,627 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $135.00 price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. UBS Group raised 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 cut Merck & Co., Inc. from a “b+” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $131.33.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MRK traded down $1.60 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $129.49. The stock had a trading volume of 5,983,846 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,628,031. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.25. The company has a 50 day moving average of $128.15 and a two-hundred day moving average of $119.79. The firm has a market cap of $327.97 billion, a PE ratio of 143.88, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.39. Merck & Co., Inc. has a twelve month low of $99.14 and a twelve month high of $133.10.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $15.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.21 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 3.76% and a return on equity of 14.05%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.40 EPS. Research analysts predict that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. 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.