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, as well as vaccine products, such as preventive pediatric, adolescent, and adult vaccines. The Animal Health segment discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets veterinary pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and health management solutions and services, as well as digitally connected identification, traceability, and monitoring products. It serves drug wholesalers and retailers, hospitals, and government agencies; managed health care providers, such as health maintenance organizations, pharmacy benefit managers, and other institutions; and physicians and physician distributors, veterinarians, and animal producers. The company has collaborations with AstraZeneca PLC; Bayer AG; Eisai Co., Ltd.; Ridgeback Biotherapeutics; and Gilead Sciences, Inc. to jointly develop and commercialize long-acting treatments in HIV. Merck & Co., Inc. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Kenilworth, New Jersey.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
MRK has been the topic of several research reports. Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $95.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, June 27th. Atlantic Securities increased their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 13th. Daiwa Capital Markets upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $89.00 to $102.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 6th. UBS Group increased their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $76.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, July 18th. Finally, SVB Leerink restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $102.00 price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Monday, June 6th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $97.44.
Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance
NYSE:MRK opened at $89.52 on Wednesday. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $90.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $85.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $226.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 0.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1 year low of $70.89 and a 1 year high of $95.72.
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK - Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 28th. The company reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.18. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 29.00%. The firm had revenue of $14.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $13.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.31 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.08%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 14th. Merck & Co., Inc.'s payout ratio is 42.27%.