Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK) Stock Forecast, Price & News

19 Wall Street equities research analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Merck & Co., Inc. in the last twelve months. There are currently 5 hold ratings and 14 buy ratings for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street equities research analysts is that investors should "moderate buy" MRK shares.
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19 analysts have issued 1 year price targets for Merck & Co., Inc.'s shares. Their MRK share price forecasts range from $113.00 to $135.00. On average, they predict the company's share price to reach $124.74 in the next year. This suggests a possible upside of 17.3% from the stock's current price.
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Merck & Co., Inc.'s stock was trading at $110.95 on January 1st, 2023. Since then, MRK shares have decreased by 4.2% and is now trading at $106.34.
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The company is scheduled to release its next quarterly earnings announcement on Thursday, October 26th 2023.
View our MRK earnings forecast.

Merck & Co., Inc. will be holding an earnings conference call on Thursday, October 26th at 9:00 AM Eastern. Interested parties can register for or listen to the call using this link.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August, 1st. The company reported ($2.06) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($2.18) by $0.12. The firm earned $15.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.44 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 16.29% and a net margin of 5.34%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.87 earnings per share.
Read the conference call transcript.

Merck & Co., Inc. announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 15th will be given a dividend of $0.73 per share on Friday, October 6th. This represents a $2.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 14th.
Read our dividend analysis for MRK.

ETFs with the largest weight of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) stock in their portfolio include First Trust Nasdaq Pharmaceuticals ETF (FTXH), Invesco S&P 500 Momentum ETF (SPMO), Invesco Pharmaceuticals ETF (PJP), Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV), iShares U.S. Healthcare ETF (IYH), Vanguard Health Care ETF (VHT), Optimize AI Smart Sentiment Event-Driven ETF (OAIE) and VanEck Pharmaceutical ETF (PPH).

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) pays an annual dividend of $2.92 per share and currently has a dividend yield of 2.75%. The company has been increasing its dividend for 12 consecutive years, indicating the company has a strong committment to maintain and grow its dividend. The dividend payout ratio is 239.34%. Payout ratios above 75% are not desirable because they may not be sustainable. Based on earnings estimates, MRK will have a dividend payout ratio of 34.31% next year. This indicates that the company will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.
Read our dividend analysis for MRK.

Merck & Co., Inc. updated its FY23 earnings guidance on Tuesday, August, 1st. The company provided EPS guidance of $2.95-3.05 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $2.90. The company issued revenue guidance of $58.6-59.6 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $58.67 billion.

1,343 employees have rated Merck & Co., Inc. Chief Executive Officer Kenneth C. Frazier on Glassdoor.com. Kenneth C. Frazier has an approval rating of 94% among the company's employees. This puts Kenneth C. Frazier in the top 30% of approval ratings compared to other CEOs of publicly-traded companies.

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some companies that other Merck & Co., Inc. investors own include Pfizer (PFE), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), AT&T (T), Intel (INTC), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Walt Disney (DIS), Verizon Communications (VZ), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), AbbVie (ABBV) and Home Depot (HD).

Merck & Co., Inc. trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol "MRK."

Merck & Co., Inc.'s stock is owned by many different institutional and retail investors. Top institutional investors include Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich (73.31%), State Street Corp (4.67%), Geode Capital Management LLC (2.08%), Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. (1.21%), Northern Trust Corp (1.13%) and Bank of New York Mellon Corp (1.05%). Insiders that own company stock include Caroline Litchfield, Frank Clyburn, Johannes Jacobus Oosthuizen, Joseph Romanelli, Kenneth C Frazier, Richard R Deluca, Rita A Karachun, Robert M Davis, Sanat Chattopadhyay and Steven Mizell.
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Shares of MRK stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include WeBull, Vanguard Brokerage Services, TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE, Robinhood, Fidelity, and Charles Schwab.
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One share of MRK stock can currently be purchased for approximately $106.34.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) has a market capitalization of $269.84 billion and generates $59.28 billion in revenue each year. The company earns $14.52 billion in net income (profit) each year or $1.22 on an earnings per share basis.

The company employs 69,000 workers across the globe.

Merck & Co., Inc.'s mailing address is 2000 GALLOPING HILL ROAD, KENILWORTH NJ, 07033. The official website for the company is www.merck.com. The company can be reached via phone at (908) 740-4000, via email at investor_relations@merck.com, or via fax at 908-735-1253.