Merck & Co. – Key Insights for Investors

By Susan Ramirez • Wednesday, May 14 10:11 • Permanent Link

Merck & logged a -0.8% change during today's morning session, and is now trading at a price of $76.0 per share. The S&P 500 index moved 0.0%. MRK's trading volume is 2,273,318 compared to the stock's average volume of 17,075,413.

Merck & trades -27.4% away from its average analyst target price of $104.67 per share. The 23 analysts following the stock have set target prices ranging from $82.0 to $138.0, and on average have given Merck & a rating of buy.

Anyone interested in buying MRK should be aware of the facts below:

Merck &'s current price is 44.6% above its Graham number of $52.57, which implies that at its current valuation it does not offer a margin of safety
Merck & has moved -41.8% over the last year, and the S&P 500 logged a change of 10.9%
Based on its trailing earnings per share of 6.88, Merck & has a trailing 12 month Price to Earnings (P/E) ratio of 11.0 while the S&P 500 average is 29.3
MRK has a forward P/E ratio of 8.1 based on its forward 12 month price to earnings (EPS) of $9.4 per share
Its Price to Book (P/B) ratio is 3.96 compared to its sector average of 3.19
Merck & Co., Inc. operates as a healthcare company worldwide.
Based in Rahway, the company has 73,000 full time employees and a market cap of $190.83 Billion. Merck & currently returns an annual dividend yield of 4.1%.

The above analysis is intended for educational purposes only and was performed on the basis of publicly available data. It is not to be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Any buy, sell, or other recommendations mentioned in the article are direct quotations of consensus recommendations from the analysts covering the stock, and do not represent the opinions of Market Inference or its writers. Past performance, accounting data, and inferences about market position and corporate valuation are not reliable indicators of future price movements. Market Inference does not provide financial advice. Investors should conduct their own review and analysis of any company of interest before making an investment decision.