Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Trading Down 0.3% – Should You Sell?

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) fell 0.3% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $98.10 and last traded at $98.25. 1,782,473 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average session volume of 8,845,192 shares. The stock had previously closed at $98.50.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MRK has been the subject of a number of research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed 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 on the stock. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $130.86.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 2.1 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company has a market cap of $243.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.40. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $108.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $118.97.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.07. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 36.42% and a net margin of 19.23%. The company had revenue of $16.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.47 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.13 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.75 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the third quarter valued at $32,000. AM Squared Ltd bought a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. during the third quarter worth approximately $34,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the third quarter worth approximately $34,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the 3rd quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $39,000. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.