St. Louis Trust Co Has $1.54 Million Holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

St. Louis Trust Co lifted its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,138 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 350 shares during the quarter. St. Louis Trust Co’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $1,541,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of MRK. Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. RIA Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 180.2% during the third quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 311 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. AlphaMark Advisors LLC bought a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. during the fourth quarter worth $42,000. 76.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on MRK shares. Berenberg Bank increased their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. StockNews.com raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. TD Cowen raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $125.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $131.33.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of MRK traded down $0.93 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $129.19. 6,944,906 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,301,608. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $126.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $116.24. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52 week low of $99.14 and a 52 week high of $133.10. The company has a market cap of $327.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 144.50, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.38.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.13. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 3.76% and a return on equity of 14.15%. The company had revenue of $15.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.21 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.40 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.63 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.65, for a total transaction of $6,420,395.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 23,619 shares in the company, valued at $2,991,346.35. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.65, for a total value of $6,420,395.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 23,619 shares in the company, valued at $2,991,346.35. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total transaction of $124,890.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 19,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,443,972.41. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.09% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Merck & Co., Inc. 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.