Capital City Trust Co. FL Has $496,000 Stake in Merck & Co., Inc. $MRK

Capital City Trust Co. FL lifted its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 10.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,261 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 573 shares during the period. Capital City Trust Co. FL’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $496,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Little House Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Little House Capital LLC now owns 25,236 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,998,000 after buying an additional 308 shares during the last quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 8.2% in the 1st quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC now owns 5,039 shares of the company’s stock worth $452,000 after buying an additional 382 shares during the last quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC boosted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 20.4% in the 1st quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 19,376 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,739,000 after buying an additional 3,282 shares during the last quarter. Quilter Plc boosted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. Quilter Plc now owns 1,180,797 shares of the company’s stock worth $105,988,000 after buying an additional 62,933 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Simplicity Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 991.7% in the 1st quarter. Simplicity Wealth LLC now owns 33,394 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,997,000 after purchasing an additional 30,335 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on MRK. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $99.00 to $98.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $97.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, Berenberg Bank cut shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $100.00 to $90.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $106.41.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of MRK stock opened at $89.25 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $82.87 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $81.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.17. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1 year low of $73.31 and a 1 year high of $111.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $222.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.75, a PEG ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 0.37.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The company reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.10. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 25.79% and a return on equity of 41.05%. The business had revenue of $15.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.92 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. has set its FY 2025 guidance at 8.870-8.970 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 9.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be issued a $0.81 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.92%.

About Merck & Co., Inc.

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.