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

Merck & Co., Inc. logo
$146.65 -0.30 (-0.21%)
As of 11:05 AM Eastern
This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more.

About Merck & Co., Inc. Stock (NYSE:MRK)

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Key Stats

Today's Range
$145.24
▼
$147.79
50-Day Range
$139.61
▼
$152.32
52-Week Range
$91.49
▼
$156.92
Volume
1.04 million shs
Average Volume
10.53 million shs
Market Capitalization
$361.52 billion
P/E Ratio
150.90
Dividend Yield
2.32%
Price Target
$155.74
Consensus Rating
Moderate Buy

Company Overview

Merck & Co., Inc. is a global pharmaceutical company that develops and markets prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies and animal-health products. The company’s research and commercial activities span areas including oncology, infectious diseases, vaccines, cardiovascular disease and immunology. Its products include the cancer medicine Keytruda and the Gardasil vaccine.

Founded in the United States in 1891, Merck & Co. became an independent company in 1917. It is headquartered in Rahway, New Jersey, and operates internationally. Outside the United States and Canada, the company is generally known as MSD.

Merck serves patients, healthcare providers and animal-health customers in markets around the world. Robert M. Davis has served as the company’s chief executive officer since 2021.

AI Generated. May Contain Errors.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

See Top-Rated MarketRank™ Stocks
89th Percentile Overall Score

MRK MarketRank™: 
4.431326249505 of 5 stars

Merck & Co., Inc. scored higher than 89% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 29th out of 892 stocks in the healthcare sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

  • Consensus Rating

    Merck & Co., Inc. has received a consensus rating of Moderate Buy. The company's average rating score is 2.59, and is based on 1 strong buy rating, 16 buy ratings, 11 hold ratings, and 1 sell rating.

  • Upside/Downside

    The consensus price target for Merck & Co., Inc. is close to its current price, suggesting limited near-term upside or downside.

  • Amount of Analyst Coverage

    Merck & Co., Inc. has been the subject of 23 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock.

  • Read more about Merck & Co., Inc.'s stock forecast and price target.
  • Earnings Growth

    Earnings for Merck & Co., Inc. are expected to grow by 221.99% in the coming year, from $2.82 to $9.08 per share.

  • Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

    The P/E ratio of Merck & Co., Inc. is 151.52, which means that it is trading at a more expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 25.74.

  • Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

    The P/E ratio of Merck & Co., Inc. is 151.52, which means that it is trading at a more expensive P/E ratio than the Healthcare sector average P/E ratio of about 35.36.

  • Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

    Merck & Co., Inc. has a PEG Ratio of 6.75. PEG Ratios above 1 indicate that a company could be overvalued.

  • Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

    Merck & Co., Inc. has a P/B Ratio of 8.06. P/B Ratios above 3 indicate that a company could be overvalued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

  • Percentage of Shares Shorted

    1.08% of the float of Merck & Co., Inc. has been sold short.
  • Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

    Merck & Co., Inc. has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 2.36, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.
  • Change versus previous month

    Short interest in Merck & Co., Inc. has recently decreased by 0.82%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving.
  • Dividend Yield

    Merck & Co., Inc. pays a meaningful dividend of 2.31%, higher than the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.

  • Dividend Growth

    Merck & Co., Inc. has been increasing its dividend for 14 years.

  • Dividend Coverage

    The dividend payout ratio of Merck & Co., Inc. is 350.52%. Payout ratios above 75% are not desirable because they may not be sustainable.

  • Dividend Sustainability

    Based on earnings estimates, Merck & Co., Inc. will have a dividend payout ratio of 37.44% next year. This indicates that Merck & Co., Inc. will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

  • Read more about Merck & Co., Inc.'s dividend.
  • News Sentiment

    Merck & Co., Inc. has a news sentiment score of 0.87. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a higher news sentiment than the 0.56 average news sentiment score of Healthcare companies.
  • News Coverage This Week

    MarketBeat has tracked 42 news articles for Merck & Co., Inc. this week, compared to 9 articles on an average week.
  • Search Interest

    55 people have searched for MRK on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 17% compared to the previous 30 days.
  • MarketBeat Follows

    44 people have added Merck & Co., Inc. to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 450% compared to the previous 30 days.
  • Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

    In the past three months, Merck & Co., Inc. insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $1,350,000.00 in company stock.

  • Percentage Held by Insiders

    0.17% of the stock of Merck & Co., Inc. is held by insiders.

  • Percentage Held by Institutions

    76.07% of the stock of Merck & Co., Inc. is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

  • Read more about Merck & Co., Inc.'s insider trading history.
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MRK Stock News Headlines

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Assorted pharmaceutical pills, a medicine vial, and a syringe arranged on a laboratory bench.
3 Pharmaceutical Stocks That Offer Safety and Growth (MRK)
AbbVie, Merck and Gilead Sciences offer growing dividends alongside pipeline-driven growth, making pharmaceutical stocks a defensive option as investors seek shelter from market volatility.
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AI infrastructure is being funded with debt and stock sales while biotech companies applying AI are booking revenue, led by Tempus AI, Recursion and iShares Biotechnology...
Vaccine vial and syringe on a lab surface with DNA strands and virus particle illustrations in the background.
Merck and Moderna's Cancer Vaccine Worked—Who Gets Paid? (MRK)
Merck and Moderna's melanoma vaccine cut recurrence risk 42% in a Phase 3 trial, but results fell short of hopes, sending Moderna shares down sharply while Merck stock barely moved.
Vaccine vial and syringe on a lab surface with DNA strands and virus particle illustrations in the background.
Merck and Moderna's Cancer Vaccine Worked—Who Gets Paid? (MRK)
Merck and Moderna's melanoma vaccine cut recurrence risk 42% in a Phase 3 trial, but results fell short of hopes, sending Moderna shares down sharply while Merck stock barely moved.
See More Headlines

MRK Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions

Merck & Co., Inc.'s stock was trading at $105.20 on January 1st, 2026. Since then, MRK stock has increased by 39.7% and is now trading at $146.9790.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October, 29th. The company reported $2.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.09 by $0.40. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year.
Read the conference call transcript
.

Merck & Co., Inc.'s board approved a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, January 28th 2025, which allows the company to repurchase $10 billion in shares, according to EventVestor. This means that the company could purchase up to 4.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Top institutional investors of Merck & Co., Inc. include State Street Corp (4.93%), Fisher Asset Management LLC (1.69%), Voya Investment Management LLC (0.25%) and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. (0.24%). Insiders that own company stock include Robert M Davis, Richard R Deluca, Dean Y Li, Caroline Litchfield, Jennifer Zachary, Chirfi Guindo, David Michael Williams, Steven Mizell, Johannes Jacobus Oosthuizen, Joseph Romanelli, David R Maraldo, Dalton E Smart III, Cristal N Downing and Inge G Thulin.
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 Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, and Vanguard Brokerage Services.

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some other companies that Merck & Co., Inc. investors own include Pfizer (PFE), NVIDIA (NVDA), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), AbbVie (ABBV), Verizon Communications (VZ), Chevron (CVX) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM).

Company Calendar

Record date for 10/7 Dividend
9/15/2026
Ex-Dividend for 10/7 Dividend
9/15/2026
Dividend Payable
10/07/2026
Last Earnings
10/29/2026
Today
11/13/2026
Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference
11/19/2026
Fiscal Year End
12/31/2026

Industry, Sector and Symbol

Stock Exchange
NYSE
Industry
Pharmaceuticals
Sub-Industry
Pharmaceuticals
Current Symbol
NYSE:MRK
CIK
310158
Employees
75,000
Year Founded
1891

Price Target and Rating

High Price Target
$180.00
Low Price Target
$105.00
Potential Upside/Downside
+6.9%
Consensus Rating
Moderate Buy
Rating Score (0-4)
2.59
Research Coverage
29 Analysts

Profitability

EPS (Trailing Twelve Months)
$0.97
Trailing P/E Ratio
150.75
Forward P/E Ratio
16.05
P/E Growth
6.75
Net Income
$18.25 billion
Net Margins
3.64%
Pretax Margin
7.07%
Return on Equity
16.73%
Return on Assets
5.88%

Debt

Debt-to-Equity Ratio
1.11
Current Ratio
1.35
Quick Ratio
1.14

Sales & Book Value

Annual Sales
$65.01 billion
Price / Sales
5.53
Cash Flow
$11.31 per share
Price / Cash Flow
12.89
Book Value
$18.23 per share
Price / Book
7.99

Miscellaneous

Outstanding Shares
2,465,250,000
Free Float
2,461,055,000
Market Cap
$359.29 billion
Optionable
Optionable
Beta
0.13

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This page (NYSE:MRK) was last updated on 11/13/2026 by MarketBeat.com Staff.
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