Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Forecast, Price & News

Merck & Co., Inc.'s stock was trading at $79.25 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, MRK stock has increased by 8.3% and is now trading at $85.81.
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13 Wall Street analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Merck & Co., Inc. in the last year. There are currently 2 hold ratings and 11 buy ratings for the stock, resulting in a consensus recommendation of "Buy."
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Merck & Co., Inc. is scheduled to release its next quarterly earnings announcement on Tuesday, November 3rd 2020.
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Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July, 31st. The company reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.23. The firm earned $10.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.52 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 52.94% and a net margin of 22.20%. The business's revenue was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.30 EPS.
View Merck & Co., Inc.'s earnings history.

Merck & Co., Inc. announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 29th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.61 per share on Wednesday, October 7th. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 14th.
View Merck & Co., Inc.'s dividend history.

Merck & Co., Inc. declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, October 25th 2018, which permits the company to buyback $10,000,000,000.00 in shares, according to EventVestor. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy up to 5.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Merck & Co., Inc. issued an update on its FY20 earnings guidance on Friday, July, 31st. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $5.63-5.78 for the period, compared to the Thomson Reuters consensus earnings per share estimate of $5.31. The company issued revenue guidance of $47.2-48.7 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $47.33 billion.

13 equities research analysts have issued 1-year target prices for Merck & Co., Inc.'s stock. Their forecasts range from $89.00 to $105.00. On average, they anticipate Merck & Co., Inc.'s stock price to reach $94.54 in the next twelve months. This suggests a possible upside of 10.2% from the stock's current price.
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Media headlines about MRK stock have been trending somewhat positive this week, InfoTrie reports. InfoTrie ranks the sentiment of press coverage by monitoring more than six thousand news and blog sources in real-time. The firm ranks coverage of publicly-traded companies on a scale of negative five to positive five, with scores closest to five being the most favorable. Merck & Co., Inc. earned a media sentiment score of 2.0 on InfoTrie's scale. They also assigned media coverage about the company a news buzz of 0.0 out of 10, indicating that recent press coverage is extremely unlikely to have an impact on the stock's share price in the next several days.
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Merck & Co., Inc. saw a drop in short interest in August. As of August 14th, there was short interest totaling 11,800,000 shares, a drop of 13.9% from the July 30th total of 13,700,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 9,150,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.3 days. Approximately 0.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short.
View Merck & Co., Inc.'s Short Interest.

Some companies that are related to Merck & Co., Inc. include Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Pfizer (PFE), AbbVie (ABBV), Eli Lilly And Co (LLY), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Zoetis (ZTS), Horizon Therapeutics (HZNP), Royalty Pharma (RPRX), Mylan (MYL), Jazz Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ), Perrigo (PRGO), Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR), Pacira Biosciences (PCRX), Corcept Therapeutics (CORT) and Zogenix (ZGNX).
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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), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Verizon Communications (VZ), 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 retail and institutional investors. Top institutional shareholders include Vanguard Group Inc. (8.41%), BlackRock Inc. (7.81%), Bank of New York Mellon Corp (1.25%), Nordea Investment Management AB (0.73%), FMR LLC (0.51%) and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. (0.50%). Company insiders that own Merck & Co., Inc. stock include Adam H Schechter, Ashley Watson, Frank Clyburn, Julie L Gerberding, Kenneth C Frazier, Leslie A Brun, Merck & Co, Inc, Richard R Deluca, Rita A Karachun, Robert M Davis, Roger M Perlmutter, Sanat Chattopadhyay, Thomas H Glocer and Wendell P Weeks.
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MRK stock was sold by a variety of institutional investors in the last quarter, including Vanguard Group Inc., Bank of New York Mellon Corp, Marshall Wace North America L.P., Toronto Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Thornburg Investment Management Inc., CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC, and Victory Capital Management Inc.. Company insiders that have sold Merck & Co., Inc. company stock in the last year include Frank Clyburn, Julie L Gerberding, Sanat Chattopadhyay, and Wendell P Weeks.
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MRK stock was bought by a variety of institutional investors in the last quarter, including Nordea Investment Management AB, Point72 Asset Management L.P., Sarasin & Partners LLP, Epoch Investment Partners Inc., Ceredex Value Advisors LLC, BlackRock Inc., TD Asset Management Inc., and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc..
View insider buying and selling activity for Merck & Co., Inc..

Shares of MRK can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Vanguard Brokerage Services, TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE, Robinhood, Fidelity, and Charles Schwab.

One share of MRK stock can currently be purchased for approximately $85.81.

Merck & Co., Inc. has a market capitalization of $217.03 billion and generates $46.84 billion in revenue each year. The company earns $9.84 billion in net income (profit) each year or $5.19 on an earnings per share basis. Merck & Co., Inc. employs 71,000 workers across the globe.

The official website for Merck & Co., Inc. is www.merck.com.

Merck & Co., Inc.'s mailing address is 2000 GALLOPING HILL ROAD, KENILWORTH NJ, 07033. The company can be reached via phone at 908-740-4000 or via email at [email protected]