Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Price Target Cut to $110.00 by Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company

by · The Markets Daily

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK – Free Report) had its price target cut by Wells Fargo & Company from $125.00 to $110.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Evercore ISI raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $123.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $136.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $129.93.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on MRK

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Down 0.4 %

NYSE:MRK traded down $0.44 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $101.88. 10,180,978 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,858,824. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $112.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $120.87. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. Merck & Co., Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $98.60 and a fifty-two week high of $134.63. The firm has a market cap of $258.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.36, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.39.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.07. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 40.69%. The business had revenue of $16.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.47 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.13 earnings per share. Merck & Co., Inc.’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Merck & Co., Inc.

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MRK. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 3,714.9% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 6,023,853 shares of the company’s stock valued at $794,847,000 after buying an additional 5,865,948 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its position in Merck & Co., Inc. by 67.6% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,954,017 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,841,233,000 after purchasing an additional 5,627,923 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. in the first quarter worth about $724,776,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position 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 worth $337,450,000 after purchasing an additional 2,946,742 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its position 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 worth $308,782,000 after purchasing an additional 2,473,346 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

About Merck & Co., Inc.

(Get Free Report)

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.

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