Merck Company Stock Buy Hold or Sell Recommendation

MRK Stock  USD 125.23  0.14  0.11%   
Considering the 90-day investment horizon and your below-average risk tolerance, our recommendation regarding Merck Company is 'Strong Hold'. Macroaxis provides Merck buy-hold-or-sell recommendation only in the context of selected investment horizon and investor attitude towards risk assumed by holding Merck positions. The advice algorithm takes into account all of Merck's available fundamental, technical, and predictive indicators you will find on this site. Key drivers impacting Merck's buy or sell advice are summarized below:
Real Value
121.16
Target Price
117.2
Hype Value
125.19
Market Value
125.23
A buy or sell recommendation provided by Macroaxis is an automated directive regarding whether to purchase or sell Merck Company given historical horizon and risk tolerance towards Merck. When Macroaxis issues a 'buy' or 'sell' recommendation for Merck Company, the advice is generated through an automated system that utilizes algorithms and statistical models.
  
Check out Merck Analyst Recommendation to compare Macroaxis Buy or Sell Recommendation with the current analyst consensus. To check ratings for multiple equity instruments, please use the Instant Ratings tool.
In addition, we conduct extensive research on individual companies such as Merck and provide practical buy, sell, or hold advice based on investors' investing horizon and their risk tolerance towards Merck Company. Also, note that the market value of any company could be tightly coupled with the direction of predictive economic indicators such as signals in metropolitan statistical area.

Execute Merck Buy or Sell Advice

The Merck recommendation should be used to complement the buy-or-sell advice compiled from the current analysts' consensus on Merck Company. Macroaxis does not own or have any residual interests in Merck Company or other equities on which the buy-or-sell advice is provided. Please provide your input below to execute Merck's advice using the current market data and latest reported fundamentals.

Time Horizon

Risk Tolerance

Execute Advice
Sell MerckBuy Merck
Strong Hold

Market Performance

ModestDetails

Volatility

Very steadyDetails

Hype Condition

Low keyDetails

Current Valuation

Fairly ValuedDetails

Odds Of Distress

LowDetails

Economic Sensitivity

Follows the market closelyDetails

Investor Sentiment

AlarmedDetails

Analyst Consensus

Strong BuyDetails

Financial Strenth (F Score)

StrongDetails

Financial Leverage

Not RatedDetails

Reporting Quality (M-Score)

Unlikely ManipulatorDetails
For the selected time horizon Merck Company has a Risk Adjusted Performance of 0.0616, Jensen Alpha of 0.0392, Total Risk Alpha of (0.01), Sortino Ratio of 0.0389 and Treynor Ratio of 0.1047
Macroaxis provides trade recommendations on Merck Company to complement and cross-verify current analyst consensus on Merck. Our advice engine determines the firm's potential to grow exclusively from the perspective of an investor's current risk tolerance and investing horizon. To make sure Merck Company is not overpriced, please verify all Merck Company fundamentals, including its cash flow from operations, working capital, and the relationship between the cash per share and number of employees . Given that Merck Company has a price to earning of 18.05 X, we recommend you to check Merck market performance and probability of bankruptcy to ensure the company can sustain itself in the current economic cycle given your last-minute risk tolerance and investing horizon.

Merck Trading Alerts and Improvement Suggestions

Merck Company has a strong financial position based on the latest SEC filings
Over 79.0% of the company shares are owned by institutional investors
On 5th of April 2024 Merck paid $ 0.77 per share dividend to its current shareholders
Latest headline from finance.yahoo.com: Disposition of 6224 shares by Smart Dalton of Merck at 117.89 subject to Rule 16b-3

Merck Returns Distribution Density

The distribution of Merck's historical returns is an attempt to chart the uncertainty of Merck's future price movements. The chart of the probability distribution of Merck daily returns describes the distribution of returns around its average expected value. We use Merck Company price's Value At Risk and its Upside Potential as a relative measure of the distribution. The graph of the distribution of Merck returns is essential to provide solid investment advice for Merck.
Mean Return
0.1
Value At Risk
-0.98
Potential Upside
1.18
Standard Deviation
1.07
   Return Density   
       Distribution  
Investment risk management requires an estimate of the probability of extreme price changes. Therefore, the correct representation of the distribution of Merck historical returns presented in an easy-to-digest graphical form helps investors and money managers understand the risk-reward trade-off of different investement strategies.

Merck Stock Institutional Investors

Have you ever been surprised when a price of an equity instrument such as Merck is soaring high without any particular reason? This is usually happening because many institutional investors are aggressively trading Merck Company backward and forwards among themselves. Merck's institutional investor refers to the entity that pools money to purchase Merck's securities or originates loans. Institutional investors include commercial and private banks, credit unions, insurance companies, pension funds, hedge funds, endowments, and mutual funds. Operating companies that invest excess capital in these types of assets may also be included in the term and may influence corporate governance by exercising voting rights in their investments.
Shares
Northern Trust Corp2023-12-31
28.5 M
Jpmorgan Chase & Co2023-12-31
25.4 M
Goldman Sachs Group Inc2023-12-31
24.2 M
Legal & General Group Plc2023-12-31
23.5 M
Deutsche Bank Ag2023-12-31
21.6 M
Bank Of New York Mellon Corp2023-12-31
20.8 M
Amvescap Plc.2023-12-31
16.8 M
Nuveen Asset Management, Llc2023-12-31
16.7 M
Ameriprise Financial Inc2023-12-31
16.4 M
Vanguard Group Inc2023-12-31
244.8 M
Blackrock Inc2023-12-31
201.8 M
Note, although Merck's institutional investors appear to be way more sophisticated than retail investors, it remains unclear if professional active investment managers can reliably enhance risk-adjusted returns by an amount that exceeds fees and expenses.

Merck Cash Flow Accounts

201920202021202220232024 (projected)
Change To Inventory(508M)(855M)(674M)(161M)(816M)(775.2M)
Change In Cash2.0B(1.8B)14M4.6B(5.9B)(5.6B)
Free Cash Flow10.0B5.6B9.7B14.7B9.1B6.7B
Depreciation3.7B3.6B3.2B3.9B3.9B3.1B
Other Non Cash Items2.2B4.3B1.7B4.5B12.2B12.8B
Dividends Paid5.7B6.2B6.6B7.0B(7.4B)(7.1B)
Capital Expenditures3.5B4.7B4.4B4.4B3.9B2.2B
Net Income9.8B7.1B12.4B14.5B365M346.8M
End Period Cash Flow9.9B8.2B8.2B12.8B6.9B6.2B
Change To Netincome2.1B1.5B2.8B2.0B2.3B2.4B
Investments5.4B1.7B1.0B(483M)(15.9B)(15.1B)
Change Receivables294M(1.0B)(2.0B)(644M)(579.6M)(550.6M)
Net Borrowings1.2B5.0B1.6B(2.3B)(2.0B)(1.9B)

Merck Greeks

Most traded equities are subject to two types of risk - systematic (i.e., market) and unsystematic (i.e., nonmarket or company-specific) risk. Unsystematic risk is the risk that events specific to Merck or Pharmaceuticals sector will adversely affect the stock's price. This type of risk can be diversified away by owning several different stocks in different industries whose stock prices have shown a small correlation to each other. On the other hand, systematic risk is the risk that Merck's price will be affected by overall stock market movements and cannot be diversified away. So, no matter how many positions you have, you cannot eliminate market risk. However, you can measure a Merck stock's historical response to market movements and buy it if you are comfortable with its volatility direction. Beta and standard deviation are two commonly used measures to help you make the right decision.
α
Alpha over NYSE Composite
0.04
β
Beta against NYSE Composite0.85
σ
Overall volatility
1.10
Ir
Information ratio 0.03

Merck Volatility Alert

Merck Company exhibits relatively low volatility with skewness of 2.42 and kurtosis of 10.52. Understanding different market volatility trends often help investors to time the market. Properly using volatility indicators enable traders to measure Merck's stock risk against market volatility during both bullish and bearish trends. The higher level of volatility that comes with bear markets can directly impact Merck's stock price while adding stress to investors as they watch their shares' value plummet. This usually forces investors to rebalance their portfolios by buying different financial instruments as prices fall.

Merck Implied Volatility

Merck's implied volatility exposes the market's sentiment of Merck Company stock's possible movements over time. However, it does not forecast the overall direction of its price. In a nutshell, if Merck's implied volatility is high, the market thinks the stock has potential for high price swings in either direction. On the other hand, the low implied volatility suggests that Merck stock will not fluctuate a lot when Merck's options are near their expiration.

Merck Fundamentals Vs Peers

Comparing Merck's fundamentals to the average values of its peers is one of the most widely used and accepted methods of equity analyses. It helps to analyze Merck's direct or indirect competition across all of the common fundamentals between Merck and the related equities. This way, we can detect undervalued stocks with similar characteristics as Merck or determine the stocks which would be an excellent addition to an existing portfolio. Peer analysis of Merck's fundamental indicators could also be used in its relative valuation, which is a method of valuing Merck by comparing valuation metrics with those of similar companies.
    
 Better Than Average     
    
 Worse Than Average Compare Merck to competition
FundamentalsMerckPeer Average
Return On Equity0.009-0.31
Return On Asset0.0264-0.14
Profit Margin0.01 %(1.27) %
Operating Margin0.0008 %(5.51) %
Current Valuation345.96 B16.62 B
Shares Outstanding2.53 B571.82 M
Shares Owned By Insiders0.04 %10.09 %
Shares Owned By Institutions78.56 %39.21 %
Number Of Shares Shorted19.59 M4.71 M
Price To Earning18.05 X28.72 X
Price To Book8.48 X9.51 X
Price To Sales5.30 X11.42 X
Revenue59.87 B9.43 B
Gross Profit42.08 B27.38 B
EBITDA6.85 B3.9 B
Net Income365 M570.98 M
Cash And Equivalents12.69 B2.7 B
Cash Per Share4.44 X5.01 X
Total Debt36.27 B5.32 B
Debt To Equity0.68 %48.70 %
Current Ratio1.46 X2.16 X
Book Value Per Share14.85 X1.93 K
Cash Flow From Operations13.01 B971.22 M
Short Ratio1.77 X4.00 X
Earnings Per Share0.14 X3.12 X
Price To Earnings To Growth0.10 X4.89 X
Target Price137.02
Number Of Employees70 K18.84 K
Beta0.4-0.15
Market Capitalization316.78 B19.03 B
Total Asset106.67 B29.47 B
Retained Earnings53.9 B9.33 B
Working Capital6.47 B1.48 B
Note: Disposition of 6224 shares by Smart Dalton of Merck at 117.89 subject to Rule 16b-3 [view details]

Merck Market Momentum

Traders often use several daily momentume indicators to supplement a more traditional technical analysis when analyzing securities such as Merck . With many different options, investors must choose the best indicators for them and familiarize themselves with how they work. We suggest combining traditional momentum indicators with more near-term forms of technical analysis such as Accumulation Distribution or Daily Balance Of Power. With their quantitative nature, daily value technical indicators can also be incorporated into your automated trading systems.

About Merck Buy or Sell Advice

When is the right time to buy or sell Merck Company? Buying financial instruments such as Merck Stock isn't very hard. However, what challenging for most investors is doing it at the right time to beat the market. Proper market timing is something most people cannot do without sophisticated tools, which help to isolate the right opportunities. Macroaxis provides hands-on modules to deliver winning trades and diversify your portfolios on a daily basis. Most of our advising modules are very easy to use and apply.
Please read more on our stock advisor page.
 2021 2022 2023 2024 (projected)
Short and Long Term Debt Total33.1B30.7B36.3B38.1B
Total Assets105.7B109.2B106.7B60.3B

Use Investing Ideas to Build Portfolios

In addition to having Merck in your portfolios, you can quickly add positions using our predefined set of ideas and optimize them against your very unique investing style. A single investing idea is a collection of funds, stocks, ETFs, or cryptocurrencies that are programmatically selected from a pull of investment themes. After you determine your investment opportunity, you can then find an optimal portfolio that will maximize potential returns on the chosen idea or minimize its exposure to market volatility.

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Run Fabricated Products Thematic Idea Now

Fabricated Products
Fabricated Products Theme
Fama and French investing themes focus on testing asset pricing under different economic assumptions. The Fabricated Products theme has 11 constituents at this time.
You can either use a buy-and-hold strategy to lock in the entire theme or actively trade it to take advantage of the short-term price volatility of individual constituents. Macroaxis can help you discover thousands of investment opportunities in different asset classes. In addition, you can partner with us for reliable portfolio optimization as you plan to utilize Fabricated Products Theme or any other thematic opportunities.
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When determining whether Merck Company is a good investment, qualitative aspects like company management, corporate governance, and ethical practices play a significant role. A comparison with peer companies also provides context and helps to understand if Merck Stock is undervalued or overvalued. This multi-faceted approach, blending both quantitative and qualitative analysis, forms a solid foundation for making an informed investment decision about Merck Company Stock. Highlighted below are key reports to facilitate an investment decision about Merck Company Stock:
Check out Merck Analyst Recommendation to compare Macroaxis Buy or Sell Recommendation with the current analyst consensus. To check ratings for multiple equity instruments, please use the Instant Ratings tool.
You can also try the Sign In To Macroaxis module to sign in to explore Macroaxis' wealth optimization platform and fintech modules.

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When running Merck's price analysis, check to measure Merck's market volatility, profitability, liquidity, solvency, efficiency, growth potential, financial leverage, and other vital indicators. We have many different tools that can be utilized to determine how healthy Merck is operating at the current time. Most of Merck's value examination focuses on studying past and present price action to predict the probability of Merck's future price movements. You can analyze the entity against its peers and the financial market as a whole to determine factors that move Merck's price. Additionally, you may evaluate how the addition of Merck to your portfolios can decrease your overall portfolio volatility.
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Is Merck's industry expected to grow? Or is there an opportunity to expand the business' product line in the future? Factors like these will boost the valuation of Merck. If investors know Merck will grow in the future, the company's valuation will be higher. The financial industry is built on trying to define current growth potential and future valuation accurately. All the valuation information about Merck listed above have to be considered, but the key to understanding future value is determining which factors weigh more heavily than others.
Quarterly Earnings Growth
0.453
Dividend Share
2.92
Earnings Share
0.14
Revenue Per Share
23.695
Quarterly Revenue Growth
0.058
The market value of Merck Company is measured differently than its book value, which is the value of Merck that is recorded on the company's balance sheet. Investors also form their own opinion of Merck's value that differs from its market value or its book value, called intrinsic value, which is Merck's true underlying value. Investors use various methods to calculate intrinsic value and buy a stock when its market value falls below its intrinsic value. Because Merck's market value can be influenced by many factors that don't directly affect Merck's underlying business (such as a pandemic or basic market pessimism), market value can vary widely from intrinsic value.
Please note, there is a significant difference between Merck's value and its price as these two are different measures arrived at by different means. Investors typically determine if Merck is a good investment by looking at such factors as earnings, sales, fundamental and technical indicators, competition as well as analyst projections. However, Merck's price is the amount at which it trades on the open market and represents the number that a seller and buyer find agreeable to each party.