Topsail Wealth Management LLC Lowers Stake in Merck & Co., Inc. $MRK

Topsail Wealth Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 9.8% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,387 shares of the company’s stock after selling 478 shares during the period. Topsail Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $347,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MRK. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 29.5% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 38,278 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,808,000 after purchasing an additional 8,710 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 12.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 48,267 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,332,000 after acquiring an additional 5,337 shares during the period. Achmea Investment Management B.V. lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 8.9% in the first quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 182,813 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,409,000 after acquiring an additional 14,980 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 84.8% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,800,643 shares of the company’s stock worth $160,907,000 after acquiring an additional 826,385 shares during the period. Finally, Gold Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 2.3% in the first quarter. Gold Investment Management Ltd. now owns 15,339 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,377,000 after acquiring an additional 346 shares during the period. 76.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on MRK. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $97.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Citigroup began coverage on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Monday, October 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $95.00 price objective for the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Saturday. Morgan Stanley lowered 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 research note on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Berenberg Bank lowered shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $100.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $104.33.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

MRK stock opened at $87.54 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $218.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.49, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 0.37. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $84.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $81.56. Merck & Co., Inc. has a one year low of $73.31 and a one year high of $106.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.42.

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

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.