Merck stock: buy or sell?
Updated on:
December 6th, 2019
5
Merck & Co., Inc. provides healthcare solutions worldwide. It operates in four segments: Pharmaceutical, Animal Health, Healthcare Services, and Alliances.
Should I buy Merck stock?
Make a decision about when to buy or sell stocks is one of the hardest parts of being a trader or investor. That's why is so important to choose your own trading strategy that fits your character as inversor. At Stocks2.com, we like to use very simple but trusted and powerful trend following trading strategies. Simple things usually work the best.Currently, 2 buy setups work for Merck stock right now:
| Buy setup | Elegible |
|---|---|
| New all-time high | Yes |
| New 52 week high | Yes |
| Price crossing up 200d MA | No |
| 100d MA crossing up 200d MA | No |
Is Merck stock a buy?
Everyday, hundreds of stock ratings are posted by financial analysts to indicate a particular stock's attractiveness.
At Stocks2.com, we gathered 15 ratings published for MRK stock in the last month.| Date | Analyst / Broker | Previous rating | Current rating |
| 2019-9-8 | Mizuho | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-9-19 | Independent Research | n/a | Neutral |
| 2019-9-13 | Bank of America | n/a | Neutral |
| 2019-9-12 | Sanford C. Bernstein | n/a | Neutral |
| 2019-9-12 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | n/a | Neutral |
| 2019-9-10 | Morgan Stanley | n/a | Neutral |
| 2019-8-7 | Argus | Hold | Buy |
| 2019-8-5 | Mizuho | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-8-16 | Svb Leerink | n/a | Outperform |
| 2019-8-15 | HSBC | n/a | Neutral |
| 2019-8-14 | DZ Bank | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-8-14 | Barclays | n/a | Sell |
| 2019-6-21 | Morgan Stanley | n/a | Overweight |
| 2019-6-21 | Citigroup | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-6-21 | Bank of America | n/a | n/a |
Merck stock analysis
Daily outlook
Merck closed on December 6th at $88.85 after marking a new all time high ($89.24) and stayed steady a tight 0.11%.
Merck stayed stable 0.11% to $88.85 after reaching all time highs on December/6. MRK shows a strong short term uptrend with several rising tops and rising bottoms. Since its last bottom on Tuesday, MRK climbed unceasignly breaking out to new all time highs. Since Nov 12th when MRK stock price broke up the SMA100d line, it gained $5.57 (6.69%).
Weekly outlook
Merck shares appreciated 1.92% this week and topped a new all time high at $89.24. Counting this, it's been 4 green weeks in a row, gaining $5.26 or 6.19%.
If you observe the weekly chart, price finally broke over the resistance at $85.87 and continued climbing. Late April MRK price bounced up over the SMA of 40 weeks that acted as support stopping new slides.
Merck stock price history
Merck stock historical price chart
MRK stock reached all-time highs on Dec/6 with a price of $89.24.
Merck stock price target is $97.60
How much a stock will be priced tomorrow or next week is quite unpredictable However, financial institutions invest time and resources to provide the most accurated estimations to help investors to make their decisions. You should not follow the analysts' MRK stock price predictions in the hope that they will be met as they may be wrong and not met. For the last 30 days we found 7 price predictions for Merck stock:| Date | Analyst / Broker | Action | Previous target | Current target | Diff |
| 2019-9-8 | Mizuho | Reiterates | n/a | $97.00 | - |
| 2019-8-7 | Argus | Raises Target | n/a | $105.00 | - |
| 2019-8-5 | Mizuho | Reiterates | n/a | $97.00 | - |
| 2019-8-16 | Svb Leerink | Initiates | n/a | $103.00 | - |
| 2019-6-21 | Morgan Stanley | Raises Target | $84.00 | $90.00 | 7.1% |
| 2019-6-21 | Citigroup | Raises Target | $84.00 | $95.00 | 13.1% |
| 2019-6-21 | Bank of America | Raises Target | $91.00 | $96.00 | 5.5% |
| (in average) | $86.30 | $97.60 | 13.0% |
Financials and fundamental analysis
Earnings date and Earnings per Share
Since April, when Merck presented its last earnings report, it . Unfortunately, reported EPS is not yet available in our database.| Quarter | Reporting date | Estimated EPS | Actual EPS | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-Q2 | - | n/a | 1.27 | n/a |
| 2017-Q3 | 2017-10-27 | 1.03 | 1.11 | 7.8% |
| 2017-Q4 | 2018-02-02 | 0.94 | 0.98 | 4.3% |
| 2018-Q1 | 2018-05-01 | 0.99 | 1.05 | 6.1% |
| 2018-Q2 | 2018-07-27 | 1.03 | 1.06 | 2.9% |
| 2018-Q3 | 2018-10-25 | 1.16 | 1.19 | 2.6% |
| 2018-Q4 | 2019-02-01 | 1.03 | 1.04 | 1.0% |
| 2019-Q1 | 2019-04-30 | 1.08 | n/a | n/a |
| 2019-Q2 | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 2019-Q3 | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Annual financial results
In 2018, Merck annual revenues soared a nice 5.41% to $42,294.00 M dollars from $40,122.00 marked in 2017. Instead, its income margin (compared to revenues) escalated to 14.71%, that is $6,220.00 million. Merck fiscal year ends in December, and to evaluate its evolution since then, we estimate annual sales and income figures by adding results from the last 4 quarters. This is called TTM (or Twelve Trailing Months). So, Merck TTM sales up to March 2019 were $43,073.00 and earnings $8,399.00 million USD. If we compare this TTM figures with the last reported annuality, we can review Merck business evolution since December 2018: Annual revenues up to March, compared to lastest yearly report, raised a tiny 1.84%. Aligned with this, profit margin (net income/sales) inched at 14.71%.| Year | Sales | YoY | Income/(margin) | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | $44,090 M | - | $4,400 M10.0% | - |
| 2014 | $42,237 M | -4.20% | $11,920 M28.2% | 170.91% |
| 2015 | $39,498 M | -6.48% | $4,442 M11.2% | -62.73% |
| 2016 | $39,807 M | 0.78% | $3,920 M9.8% | -11.75% |
| 2017 | $40,122 M | 0.79% | $2,394 M6.0% | -38.93% |
| 2018 | $42,294 M | 5.41% | $6,220 M14.7% | 159.82% |
| TTM | $43,073 M | 1.84% | $8,399 M19.5% | 35.03% |
Quarterly financial results
Merck reported $10,816.00 M in revenues for 2019-Q1, a -1.65% less compared to previous quarter. Reported quarter income marked $2,915.00 million with a profit margin of 26.95%. Profit margin rocketed a 10.34% compared to previous quarter when profit margin was 16.61%. When comparing sales to same quarter last year, Merck sales marked a remarkable increase and rose a 7.76%.| Quarter | Sales1 | QoQ2 | Income1/(margin) | QoQ2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-Q2 | $9,880 M | - | $1,950 M19.7% | - |
| 2017-Q3 | $10,310 M | 4.35% | $-56 M-0.5% | -102.87% |
| 2017-Q4 | $10,433 M | 1.19% | $-1,046 M-10.0% | 1,767.86% |
| 2018-Q1 | $10,037 M | -3.80% | $736 M7.3% | -170.36% |
| 2018-Q2 | $10,465 M | 4.26% | $1,707 M16.3% | 131.93% |
| 2018-Q3 | $10,794 M | 3.14% | $1,950 M18.1% | 14.24% |
| 2018-Q4 | $10,998 M | 1.89% | $1,827 M16.6% | -6.31% |
| 2019-Q1 | $10,816 M | -1.65% | $2,915 M27.0% | 59.55% |
Merck ownership
When you are planning to invest in a stock, it's worth to overview its ownership structure.Management staff in all public traded companies that hold equity is required to report every transaction to the SEC. For Merck, 0.08% of all outstanding shares are owned by its staff.
In case of Merck stock, 78.28% of its shares are held by institutions (mutual funds, pension funds, big banks and other large financial institutions). Bearish positions for MRK stock account 0.00%, no big difference from last month.
The following table compares ownership indicators for other stocks related to Merck:
| MRK | AMGN | BMY | GSK | JNJ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $226.6 B | $138.9 B | $97.7 B | $113.3 B | $369.2 B |
| Total shares | 2,550.0 M | 594.2 M | 1,630.0 M | 2,490.0 M | 2,630.0 M |
| Float shares | 2,540.0 M | 592.9 M | 1,630.0 M | 2,450.0 M | 2,630.0 M |
| - Institutional holdings (%) | 78.3% | 81.9% | 75.0% | 11.0% | 69.2% |
| - Insider holdings (%) | 0.1% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| Shares in short selling | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Merck summary
| Friday, December 6th, 2019 | |
|---|---|
| Open | $89.00 |
| Close | $88.85 |
| Day range | $88.75 - $89.24 |
| Previous close | $88.75 |
| Session gain | 0.11% |
| Average true range | $1.11 |
| 50d mov avg | $84.66 |
| 100d mov avg | $84.18 |
| 200d mov avg | $82.07 |
| Daily pattern | lb03c |
| Weekly pattern | lb01c |
Merck performance
To measure stock performance is always good to benchmark with competitors or related stocks. For Merck, the comparison is made against Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, , Eli Lilly and, Novartis, Pfizer, and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.| Stock | 3m | 6m | 12m |
|---|---|---|---|
| MRKMerck | 3.31% | 9.19% | 18.99% |
| AMGNAmgen | 13.28% | 35.03% | 25.82% |
| BMYBristol-Myers Squ... | 25.24% | 30.47% | 16.84% |
| GSKGlaxoSmithKline | 9.32% | 16.96% | 28.23% |
| JNJ | 10.25% | 2.79% | -0.75% |
| LLYEli Lilly and | 5.50% | 2.24% | 7.72% |
| NVSNovartis | 2.63% | 4.55% | 21.82% |
| PFEPfizer | 5.92% | -9.09% | -9.59% |
| SNY | 2.47% | 4.12% | 10.28% |
| TEVATeva Pharmaceutic... | 41.51% | 7.13% | -48.89% |
Merck competitors
We selected a few stocks to conform a list of Merck competitors to examine if you are interested in investing in MRK:- Amgen (AMGN)
- Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY)
- GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)
- (JNJ)
- Eli Lilly and (LLY)
- Novartis (NVS)
- Pfizer (PFE)
- (SNY)
- Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (TEVA)
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