Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) to Buyback $10.00 billion in Outstanding Shares

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Tuesday, January 28th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 4.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on MRK shares. BMO Capital Markets downgraded Merck & Co., Inc. from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $136.00 to $105.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. HSBC upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $125.00 to $120.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $122.67.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of MRK traded down $0.45 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $97.49. The stock had a trading volume of 12,839,714 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,055,025. The firm has a market cap of $246.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.39. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 12-month low of $94.48 and a 12-month 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 company’s fifty day simple moving average is $99.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $108.34.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.07. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 19.23% and a return on equity of 36.42%. The business had revenue of $16.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.47 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.13 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be issued a $0.81 dividend. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.32%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio 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.