Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK) finished Wednesday with an addition of $4.07 to close at $111.30, an upside of 3.80 percent. An average of 7,159,240 shares of common stock have been traded in the last five days. There was a gain of $2.57 in the past week, and it reached a new high 37 times over the past 12 months. The last 20 days have seen an average of 7,487,095 shares traded, while the 50-day average volume stands at 7,690,888.
MRK stock has increased by 3.51% in the last month. The company shares reached their 1-month lowest point of $104.42 on 08/07/23. With the stock rallying to its 52-week high on 05/03/23, shares of the company touched a low of $84.52 and a high of $119.65 in 52 weeks. It has reached a new high 10 times so far this year and achieved 0.32% or $0.35 in price. In spite of this, the price is down -6.98% from the 52-week high.
Insider Transactions
MRK stock investors should be aware that Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) stock had its last reported insider trading activity 10 days ago on Aug 14. In this transaction, the insider spent $463,292. EVP, Chief HR Officer, MIZELL STEVEN, disposed of 4,500 shares at a price of $105.49 on Aug 03. The insider now owns more than $474,701 worth of shares. Prior to that, President, Human Health Int?l Romanelli Joseph went on to Sale 59 shares at $107.37 each on Aug 02. An amount of $6,335 was transacted.
Valuation Metrics
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) has a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 91.30. The stock’s beta is 0.34. Other valuation ratios to consider include the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio at 4.83, the price-to-book (PB) ratio at 7.30, and the price-to-cash flow ratio at 26.02.
Financial Health
The quick ratio of Merck & Co. Inc. for the three months ended June 29 was 1.00, and the current ratio was 1.30, indicating that the company is able to meet its debt obligations. Further, the company has a long term debt to equity ratio of 0.88 and a total debt to equity ratio of 0.95 for the quarter ending June 29. Its gross profit as reported stood at $41.87 billion compared to revenue of $59.28 billion.
For investors, determining the potential profitability of the investment also depends on the performance of the company’s management. In the past 12 months, Merck & Co. Inc.’s return on assets was 2.90%.
Earnings Surprise
For the three-month period that ended June 29, Merck & Co. Inc. had $34.07 billion in total debt. In the quarter under review, the net income was up than the previous quarter. The company posted a net income of -$5.97 billion in the quarter, while revenues of $2.82 billion were grew 166.01%. The analyst consensus anticipated Merck & Co. Inc.’s latest quarter earnings to come in at -$2.18 per share, but it turned out to be -$2.06, a 5.50% surprise. For the quarter, EBITDA amounted to -$4.11 billion. Shareholders own equity worth $2.54 billion.
Technical Picture
From a technical analysis perspective, let’s take a brief look at Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) price momentum. RSI 9-day as of the close on 23 August was 65.93%, suggesting the stock is Neutral, with historical volatility in this time frame at 23.74%.
As of today, MRK’s price is $109.26 +2.36% or $2.57 from its 5-day moving average. MRK is currently trading +3.88% higher than its 20-day SMA and +5.08% higher than its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is +1.31% above the SMA50 and +12.71% above the SMA200.
The stochastic %K and %D were 76.38% and 77.24%, respectively, and the average true range (ATR) was 2.06. With the 14-day stochastic at 92.10% and the average true range at 2.00, the RSI (14) stands at 60.66%. The stock has reached 0.50 on the 9-day MACD Oscillator while the 14-day reading was at 1.59.
Analyst Ratings
HSBC Securities launched coverage on Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) in its analyst report released on July 14, 2023. The firm assigned the stock a Hold rating. The consensus rating for Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) among analysts is Overweight. According to current brokerage recommendations, 0 brokerage firms advise that investors sell MRK, while 8 suggest investors hold. There are 0 analysts who rate the stock as underweight. The stock is rated overweight by 4 analysts, while 17 others rate it as a “buy”.
What is MRK’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts predict a range of price targets between $103.00 and $135.00, with a median target of $126.00. Taking a look at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts for Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) stock is $124.18.
