Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. Acquires 2,146 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 19.9% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 12,940 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,146 shares during the period. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc.’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $1,162,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MRK. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 251,096,107 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,979,041,000 after purchasing an additional 1,292,192 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 80,742,030 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,032,217,000 after buying an additional 4,932,647 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 61,181,863 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,072,582,000 after buying an additional 2,026,859 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. during the fourth quarter valued at $3,479,799,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 31,377,107 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,121,395,000 after acquiring an additional 4,511,742 shares during the period. 76.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Dalton E. Smart III sold 4,262 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.76, for a total transaction of $352,723.12. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 7,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $643,707.28. This represents a 35.40% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 0.9%

MRK opened at $77.60 on Friday. 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 $194.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.53, a PEG ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.43. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 12 month low of $73.31 and a 12 month high of $134.63. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $79.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $90.08.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $15.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.59 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 45.35% and a net margin of 26.67%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.07 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be given a $0.81 dividend. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 16th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is currently 47.16%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MRK has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $84.00 price target (down from $115.00) on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $128.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $115.00 target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Wall Street Zen lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, TD Securities cut Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $100.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $109.19.

Merck & Co., Inc. Company Profile

Merck & Co, Inc is a health care company, which engages in the provision of health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health, and consumer care products. It operates through the following segments: Pharmaceutical, Animal Health, and Other. The Pharmaceutical segment includes human health pharmaceutical and vaccine products.