Arcus Capital Partners LLC Purchases Shares of 1,742 Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Arcus Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 1,742 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $173,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Root Financial Partners LLC increased its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 15.1% in the 4th quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 9,278 shares of the company’s stock worth $923,000 after purchasing an additional 1,215 shares during the period. Family Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 26.4% in the fourth quarter. Family Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,639 shares of the company’s stock worth $263,000 after purchasing an additional 552 shares during the last quarter. Figure 8 Investment Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the fourth quarter worth $1,243,000. Bogart Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 18.2% in the fourth quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 70,256 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,989,000 after buying an additional 10,821 shares during the period. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 1,270,065 shares of the company’s stock valued at $126,622,000 after buying an additional 6,779 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on MRK. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $105.00 to $96.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Leerink Partners reduced their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $136.00 to $119.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. TD Securities lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $121.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Monday. Daiwa America lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets cut Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $117.06.

Insider Transactions at Merck & Co., Inc.

In related news, insider Cristal N. Downing sold 2,361 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.76, for a total transaction of $209,562.36. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,085 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $628,864.60. This represents a 24.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Inge G. Thulin bought 2,833 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $88.25 per share, with a total value of $250,012.25. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 2,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $258,837.25. The trade was a 2,833.00 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.09% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 1.5 %

NYSE:MRK opened at $84.35 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $213.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.53, a PEG ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.15. Merck & Co., Inc. has a one year low of $84.31 and a one year high of $134.63. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $97.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $105.65.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $15.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.51 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 45.35% and a net margin of 26.67%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.03 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be paid a $0.81 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.84%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.14%.

Merck & Co., Inc. announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, January 28th that allows the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to buy up to 4.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.