Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Raises Dividend to $0.81 Per Share

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 19th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th will be given a dividend of 0.81 per share on Wednesday, January 8th. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.36%. This is a boost from Merck & Co., Inc.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77.

Merck & Co., Inc. has raised its dividend payment by an average of 6.1% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Merck & Co., Inc. has a payout ratio of 32.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Merck & Co., Inc. to earn $9.43 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.7%.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 0.2 %

MRK stock traded down $0.15 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $96.41. 8,992,133 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,933,253. Merck & Co., Inc. has a one year low of $94.48 and a one year high of $134.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $243.88 billion, a PE ratio of 20.22, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.40. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $108.46 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $118.60.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $16.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.47 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 36.42% and a net margin of 19.23%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.13 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.75 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America dropped their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Friday. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Guggenheim cut their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $137.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $130.86.

Merck & Co., Inc. Company Profile

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.