Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK)’s traded shares stood at 26.08 million during the last session, with the company’s beta value hitting 0.36. At the close of trading, the stock’s price was $104.10, to imply a decrease of -3.02% or -$3.24 in intraday trading. The MRK share’s 52-week high remains $115.49, putting it -10.94% down since that peak but still an impressive 25.01% since price per share fell to its 52-week low of $78.06. The company has a valuation of $264.05B, with an average of 10.26 million shares in intraday trading volume over the past 10 days and average of 8.31 million shares over the past 3 months.
Analysts have given a consensus recommendation of an Overweight for Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK), translating to a mean rating of 1.90. Of 25 analyst(s) looking at the stock, 0 analyst(s) give MRK a Sell rating. 3 of those analysts rate the stock as Overweight while 6 advise Hold as 15 recommend it as a Buy. 1 analyst(s) have given it an Underweight rating. Estimates put the company’s current-quarter earnings per share at $1.3.
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Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK) trade information
After registering a -3.02% downside in the last session, Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) has traded red over the past five days. The stock hit a weekly high of 108.84 this Friday, 03/17/23, dropping -3.02% in its intraday price action. The 5-day price performance for the stock is -3.33%, and -3.32% over 30 days. With these gigs, the year-to-date price performance is -6.17%. Short interest in Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK) saw shorts transact 16.22 million shares and set a 1.75 days time to cover.
Analysts on Wall Street suggest a consensus price target of $120.71, implying an increase of 13.76% to the stock’s current value. The extremes give us $96.00 and $135.00 for target low and target high price respectively. As such, MRK has been trading -29.68% off suggested target high and 7.78% from its likely low.
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) estimates and forecasts
Looking at statistics comparing Merck & Co. Inc. share performance against respective industry, we note that the company has underperformed competitors. Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) shares are 20.00% up over the last 6 months, with its year-to-date growth rate lower than industry average at -8.16% against -4.00%. Revenue is forecast to shrink -39.30% this quarter before falling -3.70% for the next one. The rating firms project that company’s revenue will shrink -1.80% compared to the previous financial year.
Revenue forecast for the current quarter as set by 9 analysts is $13.6 billion. Meanwhile, for the quarter ending Jun 2023, a total of 9 analyst(s) estimate revenue growth to $14.22 billion.Earnings reports from the last fiscal year show that sales brought in $15.9 billion and $14.59 billion respectively in the corresponding quarters. In this case, analysts estimate current quarter sales to fall -14.50% before dropping -2.50% in the following quarter.
An assessment of the company’s 5-year growth patterns shows that annual earnings grew an estimated 25.60% for the past 5-year period. While 2023 is set for a 17.40% return in earnings, projections for the next 5 years are at 10.47% annually.
MRK Dividends
Merck & Co. Inc. has its next earnings report out on April 27. However, it is important to take into account that this dividend yield ratio is just an indicator to only serve the purpose of guidance. Investors interested to invest in the stock should ponder company’s other fundamental and operations related aspects too. Merck & Co. Inc. has a forward dividend ratio of 2.92, with the share yield ticking at 2.80% to continue the rising pattern observed over the past year. The company’s average dividend yield trailing the past 5-year period is 0.00%.
Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK)’s Major holders
Merck & Co. Inc. insiders hold 0.11% of total outstanding shares, with institutional holders owning 76.53% of the shares at 76.61% float percentage. In total, 76.53% institutions holds shares in the company, led by Vanguard Group, Inc. (The). As of Sep 29, 2022, the company held over 224.13 million shares (or 8.84% of shares), all amounting to roughly $19.3 billion.
The next major institution holding the largest number of shares is Blackrock Inc. with 214.51 million shares, or about 8.46% of shares outstanding. As of the market price on Sep 29, 2022, these shares were worth $18.47 billion.
We also have Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund and Vanguard 500 Index Fund as the top two Mutual Funds with the largest holdings of the Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) shares. Going by data provided on Sep 29, 2022, Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund holds roughly 75.58 million shares. This is just over 2.98% of the total shares, with a market valuation of $6.51 billion. Data from the same date shows that the other fund manager holds a little less at 57.43 million, or 2.26% of the shares, all valued at about 4.95 billion.
