Currently, there are 2.53B common shares owned by the public and among those 2.53B shares have been available to trade.
The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -4.89% and -15.79% over the past three months. MRK shares are trading -16.56% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -33.82% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $84.31 and touched a high of $134.63 over the same period. MRK has an average intraday trading volume of 13.42 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -10.50%, -14.68%, and -26.19% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Merck & Co Inc (NYSE: MRK) shares accounts for 79.52% of the company’s 2.53B shares outstanding.
It has a market capitalization of $209.99B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.36. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 12.33, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $6.73. The company has a PEG of 1.03 and a Quick Ratio of 1.15 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.86. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.92% over the week and 2.12% over the month.
Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 17.82%, and 9.45% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 11.97% over the next five years, compared to 12.04% over the past 5-year period.
Looking at the support for the MRK, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. TD Cowen stated their Hold rating for the stock in a research note on February 10, 2025, with the firm’s price target at $121-$100. Truist coverage for the Merck & Co Inc (MRK) stock in a research note released on January 08, 2025 offered a Hold rating with a price target of $110. BMO Capital Markets was of a view on December 20, 2024 that the stock is Market Perform, while BofA Securities gave the stock Buy rating on December 10, 2024, issuing a price target of $121. HSBC Securities on their part issued Buy rating on December 04, 2024.
