How to buy Merck-and-Company (MRK) stocks

Merck-and-Company is a drug manufacturers - general business based in the US. Merck-and-Company shares (MRK) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars.

Its last market close was $98.34 – a decrease of 2.87% over the previous week. Merck-and-Company employs 70,000 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around $63.2 billion.

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Merck-and-Company stock price (NYSE: MRK)

Use our graph to track the performance of MRK stocks over time.

Merck-and-Company stocks at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2024-12-18.

Latest market close	$98.34
52-week range	$93.73 - $132.67
50-day moving average more info button	$103.01
200-day moving average more info button	$118.29
Wall St. target price	$129.97
PE ratio more info button	20.5732
Dividend yield more info button	$3.04 (3.29%)
Earnings per share (TTM) more info button	$4.78

Is it a good time to buy Merck-and-Company stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

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Merck-and-Company price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $100.06 from 2024-12-17

1 week (2024-12-12)	-1.18%
1 month (2024-11-19)	3.65%
3 months (2024-09-19)	-14.65%
6 months (2024-06-18)	-21.82%

1 year (2023-12-19)	-6.04%
2 years (2022-12-19)	-3.45%
3 years (2021-12-17)	44.09%
5 years (2019-12-19)	35.80%

Is Merck-and-Company stock undervalued or overvalued?

Valuing Merck-and-Company stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Merck-and-Company's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Merck-and-Company's P/E ratio

Merck-and-Company's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 21x. In other words, Merck-and-Company shares trade at around 21x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the stock or simply that they're under-valued.

Merck-and-Company's PEG ratio

Merck-and-Company's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 0.0696. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the stocks offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the stocks offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Merck-and-Company's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the stock prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Merck-and-Company's EBITDA

Merck-and-Company's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is $22.9 billion.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Merck-and-Company's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Merck-and-Company financials

Revenue TTM	$63.2 billion
Operating margin TTM	26.2%
Gross profit TTM	$42.1 billion
Return on assets TTM	10.53%
Return on equity TTM	28.33%
Profit margin	19.23%
Book value	$17.58
Market Capitalization more info button	$248.8 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Merck-and-Company stock dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 52.44% of net profits

Recently Merck-and-Company has paid out, on average, around 100% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 0% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Merck-and-Company shareholders could enjoy a 0% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Merck-and-Company's case, that would currently equate to about $3.04 per share.

Merck-and-Company's payout ratio would broadly be considered high, and as such this stock could appeal to those looking to generate an income. Bear in mind however that companies should normally also look to re-invest a decent amount of net profits to ensure future growth.

Merck-and-Company's most recent dividend payout was on 7 January 2025. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their stocks by 15 December 2024 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Merck-and-Company's stocks ever split?

Merck-and-Company's stocks were split on a 1048:1000 basis on 2 June 2021 . So if you had owned 1000 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 1048 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Merck-and-Company stocks – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 4.6% lower stock price could have impacted the market appetite for Merck-and-Company stocks, which in turn could have impacted Merck-and-Company's stock price.

Merck-and-Company stock price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Merck-and-Company's stocks have ranged in value from as little as $93.7297 up to $132.6732. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta."

Beta is a measure of a stocks volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Merck-and-Company's is 0.411. This would suggest that Merck-and-Company's stocks are less volatile than average (for this exchange).

Merck-and-Company overview

Merck & Co., Inc. operates as a healthcare company worldwide. It operates through two segments, Pharmaceutical and Animal Health. The Pharmaceutical segment offers human health pharmaceutical products in the areas of oncology, hospital acute care, immunology, neuroscience, virology, cardiovascular, and diabetes under the Keytruda, Bridion, Adempas, Lagevrio, Belsomra, Simponi, and Januvia brands, as well as vaccine products consisting of preventive pediatric, adolescent, and adult vaccines under the Gardasil/Gardasil 9, ProQuad, M-M-R II, Varivax, RotaTeq, Live Oral, Vaxneuvance, Pneumovax 23, and Vaqta names. The Animal Health segment discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets veterinary pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and health management solutions and services, as well as digitally connected identification, traceability, and monitoring products. vIt has development and commercialization agreement for three of Daiichi Sankyo's deruxtecan ADC candidates, which include patritumab deruxtecan, ifinatamab deruxtecan, and raludotatug deruxtecan for the treatment of multiple solid tumors both as monotherapy and/or in combination with other treatments; and AstraZeneca PLC to co-development and co-commercialize AstraZeneca's Lynparza products for multiple cancer types, and Koselugo for multiple indications.

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Frequently asked questions

What percentage of Merck-and-Company is owned by insiders or institutions?
Currently 0.061% of Merck-and-Company stocks are held by insiders and 79.453% by institutions. How many people work for Merck-and-Company?
Latest data suggests 70,000 work at Merck-and-Company. When does the fiscal year end for Merck-and-Company?
Merck-and-Company's fiscal year ends in December. Where is Merck-and-Company based?
Merck-and-Company's address is: 126 East Lincoln Avenue, Rahway, NJ, United States, 07065 What is Merck-and-Company's ISIN number?
Merck-and-Company's international securities identification number is: US58933Y1055 What is Merck-and-Company's CUSIP number?
Merck-and-Company's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 589339209

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