Morgan Stanley Increases Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Price Target to $118.00

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) had its target price upped by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $115.00 to $118.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective points to a potential upside of 14.76% from the company’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $135.00 price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Monday, October 23rd. UBS Group raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $117.00 to $122.00 in a research report on Friday, October 20th. HSBC initiated coverage on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Friday, July 14th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $123.00 price objective for the company. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $132.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $125.65.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 2.6 %

NYSE MRK opened at $102.82 on Friday. Merck & Co., Inc. has a one year low of $96.36 and a one year high of $119.65. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $106.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $109.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $260.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.12, a PEG ratio of 9.10 and a beta of 0.34.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 26th. The company reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.19. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 7.77% and a return on equity of 18.00%. The firm had revenue of $16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.85 earnings per share. Merck & Co., Inc.’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 1.36 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 4,250 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock in a transaction on Monday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.01, for a total value of $463,292.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 22,935 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,500,144.35. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Merck & Co., Inc.

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MRK. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 102,675.5% in the second quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 1,860,147,936 shares of the company’s stock valued at $214,642,470,000 after buying an additional 1,858,338,022 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 103,159.7% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 39,327,490 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,363,385,000 after buying an additional 39,289,404 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Merck & Co., Inc. in the fourth quarter valued at $2,736,293,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 30.2% in the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 35,734,925 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,801,839,000 after buying an additional 8,281,942 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 10.6% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 68,563,817 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,294,504,000 after buying an additional 6,546,946 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.59% of the company’s stock.

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, as well as vaccine products, such as preventive pediatric, adolescent, and adult vaccines.