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

20 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 15 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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20 brokerages have issued twelve-month target prices for Merck & Co., Inc.'s stock. 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 twelve months. This suggests a possible upside of 16.1% from the stock's current price.
View analysts price targets for MRK or view top-rated stocks among Wall Street analysts.

Merck & Co., Inc.'s stock was trading at $110.95 at the beginning of the year. Since then, MRK stock has decreased by 3.2% and is now trading at $107.44.
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Merck & Co., Inc. saw a decline in short interest in the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totaling 14,140,000 shares, a decline of 21.1% from the July 15th total of 17,920,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 7,520,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.9 days.
View Merck & Co., Inc.'s Short Interest.

The company is scheduled to release its next quarterly earnings announcement on Thursday, October 26th 2023.
View our MRK earnings forecast.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August, 1st. The company reported ($2.06) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($2.18) by $0.12. The business had revenue of $15.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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%. Merck & Co., Inc.'s revenue was up 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.87 earnings per share.
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Merck & Co., Inc. announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.73 per share on Friday, October 6th. This represents a $2.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date 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 Dynamic 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 34.19% 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 earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $2.95-3.05 for the period, compared to the consensus 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 shareholders include Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich (73.31%), Geode Capital Management LLC (2.08%), Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. (1.21%), Northern Trust Corp (1.13%), Bank of New York Mellon Corp (1.05%) and Capital World Investors (0.52%). 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 $107.44.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) has a market capitalization of $272.63 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.