Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Louise Chen maintained a Buy rating on Merck & Company (MRK) today and set a price target of $95. The company’s shares opened today at $82.91, close to its 52-week high of $83.45.
Chen noted:
“We rate MRK 12-month PT of $95. We think there is upside to Keytruda sales estimates. Sales growth across oncology, vaccines, animal health, and select hospital/specialty care products, as well as margin-expansion opportunities, are underappreciated, in our view. Therefore, we expect upward earnings revisions and multiple expansion in 2019+ to drive MRK’s shares higher. Valuation Summary We arrive at our 12-month price target of $95 for Merck shares by using a blend of Base case analyses.”
According to TipRanks.com, Chen is a 5-star analyst with an average return of 17.4% and a 49.1% success rate. Chen covers the Healthcare sector, focusing on stocks such as Bausch Health Companies Inc, Aridis Pharmaceuticals Inc, and Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Merck & Company has an analyst consensus of Strong Buy, with a price target consensus of $87.71.
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Merck & Company’s market cap is currently $215.1B and has a P/E ratio of 35.75. The company has a Price to Book ratio of 8.05.
Based on the recent corporate insider activity of 25 insiders, corporate insider sentiment is negative on the stock. Last month, Rita Karachun, the Sr. VP Fince-Global Controller of MRK sold 64,662 shares for a total of $5,105,712.
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