Cross Staff Investments Inc Has $784,000 Stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Cross Staff Investments Inc increased its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 6,908 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 133 shares during the quarter. Cross Staff Investments Inc’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $784,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MRK. Scharf Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 7.2% in the 1st quarter. Scharf Investments LLC now owns 9,656 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,274,000 after purchasing an additional 645 shares during the period. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC grew its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 11.4% during the first quarter. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC now owns 60,822 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,025,000 after buying an additional 6,235 shares in the last quarter. Thrive Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Thrive Wealth Management LLC now owns 20,470 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,701,000 after acquiring an additional 363 shares during the period. Lockerman Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. Lockerman Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,382 shares of the company’s stock worth $446,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares during the period. Finally, Sunburst Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Sunburst Financial Group LLC now owns 7,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,035,000 after acquiring an additional 189 shares in the last quarter. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on MRK shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $125.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $143.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Merck & Co., Inc. has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $131.62.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE MRK opened at $105.88 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $113.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $121.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.22. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1 year low of $99.80 and a 1 year high of $134.63. The firm has a market cap of $268.17 billion, a PE ratio of 19.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.39.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $16.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.87 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 40.69%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($2.06) earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.8 EPS for the current 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.