Harbor Investment Advisory LLC Has $1.31 Million Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. $MRK

Harbor Investment Advisory LLC lessened its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 16.7% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 16,508 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,301 shares during the quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $1,307,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of MRK. Kera Capital Partners Inc. lifted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 114.7% during the 2nd quarter. Kera Capital Partners Inc. now owns 8,272 shares of the company’s stock worth $655,000 after buying an additional 4,420 shares during the period. Rowlandmiller & PARTNERS.ADV raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.5% during the second quarter. Rowlandmiller & PARTNERS.ADV now owns 40,898 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,238,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Investment Group LTD. lifted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 9.3% during the second quarter. Cullen Investment Group LTD. now owns 120,426 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,533,000 after acquiring an additional 10,237 shares during the period. AG2R LA Mondiale Gestion D Actifs bought a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the first quarter valued at $8,390,000. Finally, Swedbank AB boosted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 7,987,977 shares of the company’s stock valued at $717,001,000 after purchasing an additional 327,325 shares in the last quarter. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MRK has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald cut shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from an “overweight” rating to a “cautious” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $97.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $99.00 to $98.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $107.44.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 2.7%

MRK stock opened at $82.87 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $82.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $82.81. Merck & Co., Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $73.31 and a fifty-two week high of $119.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $206.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.77, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.17.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The company reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.10. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 41.05% and a net margin of 25.79%.The firm had revenue of $15.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.92 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. has set its FY 2025 guidance at 8.870-8.970 EPS. Analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.81 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.92%.

Merck & Co., Inc. Profile

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.