Merck & Company, Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Given a $70.00 Price Target by Piper Jaffray Companies Analysts

Piper Jaffray Companies set a $70.00 target price on Merck & Company, Inc. (NYSE:MRK) in a research report released on Saturday, July 29th. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the stock.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on MRK. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (The) reiterated a neutral rating and set a $74.00 target price (up from $70.00) on shares of Merck & in a report on Thursday, July 27th. Citigroup Inc. set a $65.00 price target on shares of Merck & and gave the stock a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 5th. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of Merck & from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $73.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, May 26th. BidaskClub downgraded shares of Merck & from a sell rating to a strong sell rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 19th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued a buy rating and issued a $74.00 price target on shares of Merck & in a research note on Tuesday, June 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $69.58.

Merck & (NYSE:MRK) opened at 61.49 on Friday. Merck & has a 52-week low of $58.29 and a 52-week high of $66.80. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $62.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $63.83. The company has a market capitalization of $167.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.29 and a beta of 0.80.

Merck & (NYSE:MRK) last posted its earnings results on Friday, July 28th. The company reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $9.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.75 billion. Merck & had a net margin of 17.14% and a return on equity of 26.02%. Merck &’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.93 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Merck & will post $3.87 earnings per share for the current year.

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The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 6th. Investors of record on Friday, September 15th will be given a dividend of $0.47 per share. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 14th. Merck &’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 76.11%.

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. WFG Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Merck & by 16.9% in the second quarter. WFG Advisors LP now owns 13,478 shares of the company’s stock valued at $864,000 after buying an additional 1,946 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its stake in shares of Merck & by 22.4% in the second quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 1,019,846 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,359,000 after buying an additional 186,774 shares in the last quarter. Afam Capital Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Merck & by 14.5% in the second quarter. Afam Capital Inc. now owns 36,755 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,356,000 after buying an additional 4,667 shares in the last quarter. Beaton Management Co. Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Merck & during the second quarter valued at about $1,143,000. Finally, Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Merck & by 2.5% in the second quarter. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC now owns 22,061 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,414,000 after buying an additional 541 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.46% of the company’s stock.

Merck & Company Profile

Merck & Co, Inc is a global healthcare company. The Company offers health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies and animal health products. It operates through four segments: Pharmaceutical, Animal Health, Healthcare Services and Alliances. The Company’s Pharmaceutical segment includes human health pharmaceutical and vaccine products marketed either directly by the Company or through joint ventures.