Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Sells 4,228 Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. $MRK

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 9.2% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 41,748 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,228 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $3,305,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 144.6% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 49,229,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,418,820,000 after purchasing an additional 29,104,112 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the 1st quarter worth $991,553,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 2,240.9% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 5,286,801 shares of the company’s stock worth $474,543,000 after buying an additional 5,060,959 shares in the last quarter. Amundi increased its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 37.1% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 13,077,716 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,130,397,000 after buying an additional 3,542,036 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. during the second quarter valued at about $258,267,000. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on MRK shares. Berenberg Bank lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $100.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $97.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $99.00 to $98.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $104.31.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

Shares of MRK opened at $86.02 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $83.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $81.42. The company has a market capitalization of $214.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.25, a P/E/G ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.42. Merck & Co., Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $73.31 and a fifty-two week high of $111.58.

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

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th were paid a dividend of $0.81 per share. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 15th. 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.