Bank of America Reaffirms Buy Rating for Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by stock analysts at Bank of America in a report released on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. They presently have a $121.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America‘s price objective points to a potential upside of 21.28% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on MRK. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $125.00 to $110.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Daiwa America cut shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of 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. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $129.20.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of MRK opened at $99.77 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market cap of $252.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.39. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $103.84 and its 200 day moving average price is $115.36. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 12-month low of $94.48 and a 12-month high of $134.63.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.07. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 19.23% and a return on equity of 36.42%. The firm had revenue of $16.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.47 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.13 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Merck & Co., Inc.

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MRK. Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. in the third quarter valued at $32,000. AM Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the 3rd quarter valued at about $34,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the 3rd quarter valued at about $34,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. during the second quarter worth approximately $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

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.