Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Receives $117.12 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK - Get Free Report) have earned an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the twenty-three research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have issued a buy recommendation and three have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $117.12.

MRK has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. TD Securities cut Merck & Co., Inc. from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $121.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. TD Cowen cut shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and cut their price target for the company from $121.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $125.00 to $120.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Leerink Partners dropped their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $136.00 to $119.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Merck & Co., Inc. from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $128.00 to $105.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 18th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Merck & Co., Inc.

In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, Director Inge G. Thulin bought 2,833 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 6th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $88.25 per share, with a total value of $250,012.25. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 2,933 shares in the company, valued at $258,837.25. The trade was a 2,833.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Cristal N. Downing sold 2,361 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.76, for a total transaction of $209,562.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 7,085 shares in the company, valued at approximately $628,864.60. The trade was a 24.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.09% of the company's stock.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 8.9% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 6,355,950 shares of the company's stock worth $721,782,000 after purchasing an additional 518,270 shares during the period. Rench Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Rench Wealth Management Inc. now owns 43,116 shares of the company's stock worth $4,896,000 after buying an additional 564 shares during the period. Redwood Grove Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 50.8% during the 3rd quarter. Redwood Grove Capital LLC now owns 149,710 shares of the company's stock worth $17,001,000 after buying an additional 50,410 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 1,257,042 shares of the company's stock valued at $142,750,000 after buying an additional 63,061 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP increased its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 19.0% in the third quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 214,380 shares of the company's stock valued at $24,345,000 after buying an additional 34,213 shares during the period. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE MRK traded down $0.45 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $81.02. The stock had a trading volume of 9,361,126 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,222,107. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $90.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $98.91. 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. has a fifty-two week low of $79.39 and a fifty-two week high of $134.63. The firm has a market cap of $204.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.40.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $1.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.85 by ($0.13). The firm had revenue of $15.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.51 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 45.35% and a net margin of 26.67%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.03 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Investors of record on Monday, March 17th will be paid a $0.81 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 17th. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.00%. Merck & Co., Inc.'s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.14%.

Merck & Co., Inc. announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, January 28th that allows the company to buyback $10.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 4.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.