Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.81

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 19th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th will be paid a dividend of 0.81 per share on Wednesday, January 8th. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 16th. 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% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Merck & Co., Inc. has a dividend 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 Up 0.9 %

Merck & Co., Inc. stock opened at $97.43 on Thursday. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 12 month low of $94.48 and a 12 month high of $134.63. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market cap of $246.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.40. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $107.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $118.24.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.07. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 36.42% and a net margin of 19.23%. The company had revenue of $16.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.47 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.13 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on MRK. Citigroup decreased their target price 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. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $123.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Daiwa Capital Markets lowered Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Wolfe Research started coverage on Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Friday, November 15th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. 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. According to MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $130.86.

About Merck & Co., Inc.

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.