Is Merck Stock a Good Investment?

Merck Investment Advice

MRK

To provide specific investment advice or recommendations on Merck Company stock, we recommend investors consider the following general factors when evaluating Merck Company. This will help you to make an informed decision on whether to include Merck in one of your diversified portfolios:

Examine Merck's financial health by looking at its balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement. Analyze key financial ratios, such as Price-to-Earnings (P/E), Price-to-Sales (P/S), and Price-to-Book (P/B), to determine whether the stock is fairly valued or over/undervalued.
Research Merck's leadership team and their track record. Good management can help Merck navigate difficult times and make strategic decisions that benefit shareholders and increases its net worth.
Consider the overall health of the Pharmaceuticals space and any emerging trends that could impact Merck's business and its evolving consumer preferences.
Compare Merck's performance and market position to its competitors. Analyze how Merck is positioned in terms of product offerings, innovation, and market share.
Check if Merck pays a dividend and its dividend yield and payout ratio.
Review what financial analysts are saying about Merck's stock and their price targets. However, remember that analysts' opinions can vary, and their predictions may not always be accurate.

It's important to note that investing in Merck Company stock, carries risks, and you should carefully consider your investment goals and risk tolerance before making any investment decisions. Also, remember that it's important for investors to have a long-term perspective and a well-diversified portfolio to manage the impact of stock market volatility on their investments. Below is a detailed guide on how to decide if Merck Company is a good investment.

Sell

Buy

Strong Sell

Macroaxis provides trade recommendations on Merck Company to complement and cross-verify current analyst consensus on Merck. Our advice engine determines the firm's potential to grow exclusively from the perspective of an investor's current risk tolerance and investing horizon. To make sure Merck Company is not overpriced, please verify all Merck Company fundamentals, including its cash flow from operations, working capital, and the relationship between the cash per share and number of employees . Given that Merck Company has a price to earning of 18.05 X, we recommend you to check Merck market performance and probability of bankruptcy to ensure the company can sustain itself in the current economic cycle given your last-minute risk tolerance and investing horizon.

Market Performance	Very Weak	Details
Volatility	Very steady	Details
Hype Condition	Over hyped	Details
Current Valuation	Fairly Valued	Details
Odds Of Distress	Low	Details
Economic Sensitivity	Slowly supersedes the market	Details
Investor Sentiment	Alarmed	Details
Analyst Consensus	Strong Buy	Details
Financial Strenth (F Score)	Strong	Details
Financial Leverage	Not Rated	Details
Reporting Quality (M-Score)	Unlikely Manipulator	Details

Examine Merck Stock

Researching Merck's stock involves analyzing various aspects of the company and its industry to make an informed investment decision. The key areas to focus on are fundamentals, business model and competitive advantage. It is also important to analyze trends in revenue, net income, and cash flow, as well as key financial ratios, such as price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales (P/S), and debt-to-equity (D/E). About 79.0% of the company shares are owned by institutional investors. The company has Price/Earnings To Growth (PEG) ratio of 0.07. Merck Company last dividend was issued on the 16th of December 2024. The entity had 1048:1000 split on the 3rd of June 2021.

To determine if Merck is a good investment, evaluating the company's potential for future growth is also very important. This may include expanding into new markets, launching new products or services, or improving operational efficiency. Companies with strong growth prospects can be more attractive investments. This aspect of the research should be conducted in the context of the overall market and industry in which the company operates and should include an analysis of growth potential, competitive landscape, and any regulatory or economic factors that could impact the business. Some of the essential points regarding Merck's research are outlined below:

	Merck Company generated a negative expected return over the last 90 days
	Merck Company has a strong financial position based on the latest SEC filings
	Over 79.0% of the company shares are owned by institutional investors
	On 7th of October 2024 Merck paid $ 0.77 per share dividend to its current shareholders
	Latest headline from gurufocus.com: Merck Stock Surges Amid Industry Layoff Trends

Merck Quarterly Cash And Short Term Investments

14.59 Billion

Merck uses earnings reports to provide investors with an update of all three financial statements, including the income statement, the balance sheet, and the cash flow statement. Therefore, it is also crucial when considering investing in Merck Company. Every quarterly earnings report provides investors with an overview of sales, expenses, and net income for the most recent period. It also may provide a comparison to Merck's previous reporting period. The quarterly earnings reports are usually disseminated to the public via Form 10-Q, which is a legal document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission every quarter.

	25th of April 2024 Upcoming Quarterly Report	View
	6th of August 2024 Next Financial Report	View
	31st of March 2024 Next Fiscal Quarter End	View
	6th of February 2025 Next Fiscal Year End	View
	31st of December 2023 Last Quarter Report	View
	31st of December 2023 Last Financial Announcement	View

Earnings surprises can significantly impact Merck's stock price both in the short term and over time. Negative earnings surprises usually result in a price decline. However, it has been seen that positive earnings surprises lead to an immediate rise in a stock's price and a gradual increase over time. This is why we often hear news about some companies beating earning projections. Financial analysts spend a large amount of time predicting earnings per share (EPS) along with other important future indicators. Many analysts use forecasting models, management guidance, and additional fundamental information to derive an EPS estimate. Below are the table of largest EPS Surprises Merck's investors have experienced.

Reported	Fiscal Date	Estimated EPS	Reported EPS	Surprise
2010-05-04	2010-03-31	0.75	0.83	0.08	10
2006-07-24	2006-06-30	0.65	0.73	0.08	12
2014-04-29	2014-03-31	0.79	0.88	0.09	11
2015-04-28	2015-03-31	0.75	0.85	0.1	13
2007-07-23	2007-06-30	0.72	0.82	0.1	13
2004-10-21	2004-09-30	0.71	0.6	-0.11	15
2009-02-03	2008-12-31	0.74	0.87	0.13	17
2024-02-01	2023-12-31	-0.11	0.03	0.14	127

Know Merck's Top Institutional Investors

Have you ever been surprised when a price of an equity instrument such as Merck is soaring high without any particular reason? This is usually happening because many institutional investors are aggressively trading Merck Company backward and forwards among themselves. Merck's institutional investor refers to the entity that pools money to purchase Merck's securities or originate loans. Institutional investors include commercial and private banks, credit unions, insurance companies, pension funds, hedge funds, endowments, and mutual funds. Operating companies that invest excess capital in these types of assets may also be included in the term and may influence corporate governance by exercising voting rights in their investments.

		Shares
T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.	2024-06-30	24.7 M
Legal & General Group Plc	2024-06-30	23.4 M
Deutsche Bank Ag	2024-06-30	20.8 M
Bank Of New York Mellon Corp	2024-06-30	19.2 M
Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc	2024-09-30	18.8 M
Ubs Asset Mgmt Americas Inc	2024-09-30	17.8 M
Ameriprise Financial Inc	2024-06-30	16.6 M
Dz Bank Ag Deutsche Zentral-genossenschaftsbank Frankfurt Am Main	2024-06-30	15.9 M
Amvescap Plc.	2024-06-30	15.8 M
Vanguard Group Inc	2024-09-30	249.8 M
Blackrock Inc	2024-06-30	207.3 M

Note, although Merck's institutional investors appear to be way more sophisticated than retail investors, it remains unclear if professional active investment managers can reliably enhance risk-adjusted returns by an amount that exceeds fees and expenses.

Merck's market capitalization trends

The company currently falls under 'Mega-Cap' category with a total capitalization of 250.89 B.

Market Cap

268.6 Billion

Merck's profitablity analysis

	Last Reported	Projected for Next Year
Return On Tangible Assets	0.01	0.01
Return On Capital Employed	0.04	0.03
Return On Equity	0.01	0.01

The company has Net Profit Margin of 0.19 %, which implies that it may need a different competitive strategy as even a very small decline in it revenue may erase profits and result in a net loss. This is way below average. In the same way, it shows Net Operating Margin of 0.26 %, which entails that for every 100 dollars of revenue, it generated $0.26 of operating income.

Determining Merck's profitability involves analyzing its financial statements and using various financial metrics to determine if Merck is a good buy. For example, gross profit margin measures Merck's profitability after accounting for the cost of goods sold, while net profit margin measures profitability after accounting for all expenses. Other important metrics include return on assets, return on equity, and free cash flow. By reviewing multiple sources and metrics, you can gain a complete picture of Merck's profitability and make more informed investment decisions.

Merck's Earnings Breakdown by Geography

Evaluate Merck's management efficiency

Merck Company has Return on Asset of 0.1053 % which means that on every $100 spent on assets, it made $0.1053 of profit. This is way below average. In the same way, it shows a return on shareholders' equity (ROE) of 0.2833 %, implying that it generated $0.2833 on every 100 dollars invested. Merck's management efficiency ratios could be used to measure how well Merck manages its routine affairs as well as how well it operates its assets and liabilities. The value of Return On Tangible Assets is estimated to slide to 0.01. The value of Return On Capital Employed is expected to slide to 0.03. At this time, Merck's Non Current Liabilities Total is quite stable compared to the past year. Non Current Liabilities Other is expected to rise to about 10.8 B this year, although the value of Total Current Liabilities will most likely fall to about 13.3 B.

	Last Reported	Projected for Next Year
Book Value Per Share	14.44	7.78
Tangible Book Value Per Share	(0.60)	(0.57)
Enterprise Value Over EBITDA	45.40	47.67
Price Book Value Ratio	7.56	6.92
Enterprise Value Multiple	45.40	47.67
Price Fair Value	7.56	6.92
Enterprise Value	282.2 B	296.3 B

The strategic initiatives led by Merck's management are central to its market success. By analyzing these initiatives, we provide a clear picture of the stock's growth prospects.

Dividend Yield

0.0327

Forward Dividend Yield

0.0327

Forward Dividend Rate

3.24

Beta

0.411

Basic technical analysis of Merck Stock

As of the 23rd of November, Merck secures the Standard Deviation of 1.14, mean deviation of 0.8533, and Risk Adjusted Performance of (0.15). In connection with fundamental indicators, the technical analysis model lets you check existing technical drivers of Merck Company, as well as the relationship between them.

Merck's insider trading activities

Some recent studies suggest that insider trading raises the cost of capital for securities issuers and decreases overall economic growth. Trading by specific Merck insiders, such as employees or executives, is commonly permitted as long as it does not rely on Merck's material information that is not in the public domain. Local jurisdictions usually require such trading to be reported in order to monitor insider transactions. In many U.S. states, trading conducted by corporate officers, key employees, directors, or significant shareholders must be reported to the regulator or publicly disclosed, usually within a few business days of the trade. In these cases Merck insiders are required to file a Form 4 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) when buying or selling shares of their own companies.

		Smart Dalton over six months ago Disposition of 612 shares by Smart Dalton of Merck subject to Rule 16b-3
		Smart Dalton over six months ago Disposition of 381 shares by Smart Dalton of Merck subject to Rule 16b-3
		Smart Dalton over six months ago Disposition of 6224 shares by Smart Dalton of Merck at 117.89 subject to Rule 16b-3
		Smart Dalton over six months ago Disposition of 6224 shares by Smart Dalton of Merck at 117.89 subject to Rule 16b-3
		Peter Wendell over a year ago Merck exotic insider transaction detected
		Peter Wendell over a year ago Acquisition by Peter Wendell of 270 shares of Merck subject to Rule 16b-3

Merck's Outstanding Corporate Bonds

Merck issues bonds to finance its operations. Corporate bonds make up one of the largest components of the U.S. bond market, which is considered the world's largest securities market. Merck Company uses the proceeds from bond sales for a wide variety of purposes, including financing ongoing mergers and acquisitions, buying new equipment, investing in research and development, buying back their own stock, paying dividends to shareholders, and even refinancing existing debt. Most Merck bonds can be classified according to their maturity, which is the date when Merck Company has to pay back the principal to investors. Maturities can be short-term, medium-term, or long-term (more than ten years). Longer-term bonds usually offer higher interest rates but may entail additional risks.

	MRK 29 10 DEC 61 Corp Bond US58933YBG98	View
	MERCK INC Corp Bond US58933YAZ88	View
	MERCK INC Corp Bond US58933YAY14	View
	MERCK INC Corp Bond US58933YAX31	View
	MERCK INC Corp Bond US58933YAW57	View
	MERCK INC Corp Bond US58933YAV74	View
	MRK 275 10 DEC 51 Corp Bond US58933YBF16	View
	MRK 215 10 DEC 31 Corp Bond US58933YBE41	View

View All Merck Corporate Bonds

Understand Merck's technical and predictive indicators

Using predictive indicators to make investment decisions involves analyzing Merck's various financial and market-based factors to help forecast future trends and identify investment opportunities. Select the indicators that are most relevant to your investment strategy. Each indicator has its own strengths and weaknesses, so it's essential to combine multiple indicators to get a more comprehensive view of the market and reduce the risk of making poor decisions based on limited data.

	Risk Adjusted Performance	(0.15)
	Market Risk Adjusted Performance	(1.11)
	Mean Deviation	0.8533
	Coefficient Of Variation	(499.41)
	Standard Deviation	1.14
	Variance	1.29
	Information Ratio	(0.32)
	Jensen Alpha	(0.26)
	Total Risk Alpha	(0.42)
	Treynor Ratio	(1.12)
	Maximum Drawdown	4.89
	Value At Risk	(2.13)
	Potential Upside	1.73
	Skewness	0.2231
	Kurtosis	0.2024

	Risk Adjusted Performance	(0.15)
	Market Risk Adjusted Performance	(1.11)
	Mean Deviation	0.8533
	Coefficient Of Variation	(499.41)
	Standard Deviation	1.14
	Variance	1.29
	Information Ratio	(0.32)
	Jensen Alpha	(0.26)
	Total Risk Alpha	(0.42)
	Treynor Ratio	(1.12)
	Maximum Drawdown	4.89
	Value At Risk	(2.13)
	Potential Upside	1.73
	Skewness	0.2231
	Kurtosis	0.2024

Consider Merck's intraday indicators

Merck intraday indicators are useful technical analysis tools used by many experienced traders. Just like the conventional technical analysis, daily indicators help intraday investors to analyze the price movement with the timing of Merck stock daily movement. By combining multiple daily indicators into a single trading strategy, you can limit your risk while still earning strong returns on your managed positions.

	Accumulation Distribution	0.0281
	Daily Balance Of Power	(0.24)
	Rate Of Daily Change	0.99
	Day Median Price	100.36
	Day Typical Price	99.97
	Market Facilitation Index	2.86
	Price Action Indicator	(1.52)
	Period Momentum Indicator	(0.68)
	Relative Strength Index	5.51

Merck Corporate Filings

8K	22nd of November 2024 Report filed with the SEC to announce major events that shareholders should know about	View Verify
10Q	6th of November 2024 Quarterly performance report mandated by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to be filed by publicly traded corporations	View Verify
	4th of November 2024 Other Reports	View Verify
F4	1st of October 2024 The report filed by a party regarding the acquisition or disposition of a company's common stock, as well as derivative securities such as options, warrants, and convertible securities	View Verify

Merck time-series forecasting models is one of many Merck's stock analysis techniques aimed to predict future share value based on previously observed values. Time-series forecasting models ae widely used for non-stationary data. Non-stationary data are called the data whose statistical properties e.g. the mean and standard deviation are not constant over time but instead, these metrics vary over time. These non-stationary Merck's historical data is usually called time-series. Some empirical experimentation suggests that the statistical forecasting models outperform the models based exclusively on fundamental analysis to predict the direction of the market movement and maximize returns from investment trading.

Merck Stock media impact

Far too much social signal, news, headlines, and media speculation about Merck that are available to investors today. That information is available publicly through Merck media outlets and privately through word of mouth or via Merck internal channels. However, regardless of the origin, that massive amount of Merck data is challenging to quantify into actionable patterns, especially for investors that are not very sophisticated with ever-evolving tools and techniques used in the investment management field.

A primary focus of Merck news analysis is to determine if its current price reflects all relevant headlines and social signals impacting the current market conditions. A news analyst typically looks at the history of Merck relative headlines and hype rather than examining external drivers such as technical or fundamental data. It is believed that price action tends to repeat itself due to investors' collective, patterned thinking related to Merck's headlines and news coverage data. This data is often completely overlooked or insufficiently analyzed for actionable insights to drive Merck alpha.

Merck Sentiment by Major News Outlets

Investor sentiment, mood or attitude towards Merck can have a significant impact on its stock price or the market as a whole. This sentiment can be positive or negative, and various factors, such as economic indicators, news events, or market trends, can influence it. When investor sentiment is positive, investors are more likely to buy stocks, increasing demand and increasing the stock price. Positive investor sentiment can be driven by good news about the company or the broader market, such as solid earnings reports or positive economic data.

Note that negative investor sentiment can cause investors to sell stocks, leading to a decrease in demand and a drop in the stock price. Negative sentiment can be driven by factors such as poor earnings reports, negative news about the company or industry, or broader economic concerns. It's important to note that investor sentiment is just one of many factors that can affect stock prices. Other factors, such as company performance, industry trends, and global economic conditions, can also play a significant role in determining the value of a stock.

Merck Company Historical Investor Sentiment

Investor biases related to Merck's public news can be used to forecast risks associated with an investment in Merck. The trend in average sentiment can be used to explain how an investor holding Merck can time the market purely based on public headlines and social activities around Merck Company. Please note that most equities that are difficult to arbitrage are affected by market sentiment the most.

Merck's market sentiment shows the aggregated news analyzed to detect positive and negative mentions from the text and comments. The data is normalized to provide daily scores for Merck and other traded tickers. The bigger the bubble, the more accurate the estimated score. Higher bars for a given day show more participation in the average Merck news discussions. The higher the estimate score, the more favorable the investor's outlook on Merck.

Merck Corporate Directors

Thomas Glocer	Lead Independent Director	Profile
Christine Seidman	Independent Director	Profile
Kathy Warden	Independent Director	Profile
Paul Rothman	Independent Director	Profile

When determining whether Merck Company is a good investment, qualitative aspects like company management, corporate governance, and ethical practices play a significant role. A comparison with peer companies also provides context and helps to understand if Merck Stock is undervalued or overvalued. This multi-faceted approach, blending both quantitative and qualitative analysis, forms a solid foundation for making an informed investment decision about Merck Company Stock. Highlighted below are key reports to facilitate an investment decision about Merck Company Stock: