Balboa Wealth Partners Decreases Stock Position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Balboa Wealth Partners cut its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 12.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,915 shares of the company’s stock after selling 717 shares during the quarter. Balboa Wealth Partners’ holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $558,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MRK. McGinn Penninger Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.9% in the third quarter. McGinn Penninger Investment Management Inc. now owns 32,874 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,733,000 after acquiring an additional 280 shares during the period. Lifeworks Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 15.0% during the 3rd quarter. Lifeworks Advisors LLC now owns 54,693 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,211,000 after acquiring an additional 7,116 shares during the period. Intelligence Driven Advisers LLC raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 75.5% in the third quarter. Intelligence Driven Advisers LLC now owns 11,715 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,330,000 after buying an additional 5,041 shares during the period. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.4% in the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 185,118 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,022,000 after purchasing an additional 4,374 shares during the period. Finally, Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 69.9% in the 3rd quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. now owns 795,536 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,341,000 after purchasing an additional 327,192 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MRK. Guggenheim reduced their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $137.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $123.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Truist Financial cut their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $130.86.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of MRK stock opened at $98.31 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $109.68 and its 200 day moving average price is $119.35. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1-year low of $97.90 and a 1-year high of $134.63. The company has a market cap of $248.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.15.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $16.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.47 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 19.23% and a return on equity of 36.42%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.13 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Company 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.