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 year. 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 equities research analysts have issued 12-month price targets for Merck & Co., Inc.'s shares. Their MRK share price forecasts range from $113.00 to $135.00. On average, they anticipate the company's share price to reach $124.74 in the next year. This suggests a possible upside of 16.9% from the stock's current price.
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Merck & Co., Inc.'s stock was trading at $110.95 at the beginning of the year. Since then, MRK stock has decreased by 3.8% and is now trading at $106.73.
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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) released its earnings results on Tuesday, August, 1st. The company reported ($2.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($2.18) by $0.12. The business had revenue of $15.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.44 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 5.34% and a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 16.29%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.87 EPS.
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Merck & Co., Inc. declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 25th. Shareholders 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 yield of 2.74%. 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 2.72%. 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. issued an update on its FY23 earnings guidance on Tuesday, August, 1st. The company provided earnings per share (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 a variety of institutional and retail investors. Top institutional shareholders 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.
View institutional ownership trends.

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 $106.73.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) has a market capitalization of $270.83 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.