Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC Buys Shares of 73,984 Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC bought a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK - Free Report) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 73,984 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,402,000. Merck & Co., Inc. accounts for 1.4% of Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MRK. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 11,876.3% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,971,554 shares of the company's stock valued at $337,450,000 after purchasing an additional 2,946,742 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 11,860.9% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 2,494,199 shares of the company's stock valued at $308,782,000 after purchasing an additional 2,473,346 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 68.7% in the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 5,388,551 shares of the company's stock valued at $611,924,000 after purchasing an additional 2,194,463 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 38.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 7,530,111 shares of the company's stock valued at $855,119,000 after purchasing an additional 2,095,694 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 230.8% in the second quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,807,933 shares of the company's stock valued at $347,622,000 after purchasing an additional 1,959,152 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on MRK. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays dropped their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Daiwa America downgraded Merck & Co., Inc. from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a "market perform" rating and a $115.00 target price for the company. Finally, Guggenheim dropped their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $137.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $130.86.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 1.4 %

NYSE MRK traded down $1.48 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $101.64. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,081,177 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,121,695. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $105.54 and a 200-day simple moving average of $116.87. The stock has a market cap of $257.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.40. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52 week low of $94.48 and a 52 week high of $134.63. 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 - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $16.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.47 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 19.23% and a return on equity of 36.42%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.13 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be given a dividend of $0.81 per share. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.19%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 16th. This is an increase from Merck & Co., Inc.'s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. Merck & Co., Inc.'s dividend payout ratio is currently 67.92%.

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.