Share Buyback Program Announced by Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Board of Directors

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, January 28th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $10.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 4.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MRK shares. HSBC upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Friday, November 15th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. UBS Group cut their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $125.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $125.00 to $110.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $122.67.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MRK traded down $0.45 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $97.49. 12,839,714 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,055,025. The stock has a market cap of $246.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.44, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.39. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $99.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $108.34. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 12-month low of $94.48 and a 12-month high of $134.63.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.47 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.13 earnings per share. Merck & Co., Inc.’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Investors of record on Monday, March 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.81 per share. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.32%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 67.92%.

About Merck & Co., Inc.

Merck & Co, Inc is a health care company, which engages in the provision of health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health, and consumer care products. It operates through the following segments: Pharmaceutical, Animal Health, and Other. The Pharmaceutical segment includes human health pharmaceutical and vaccine products.