Merck Dividends and Buybacks

Dividend criteria checks 5/6

Merck is a dividend paying company with a current yield of 3.29% that is well covered by earnings. Next payment date is on 8th January, 2025 with an ex-dividend date of 16th December, 2024.

Key information

3.3%

Dividend yield

0.4%

Buyback Yield

Total Shareholder Yield	3.7%
Future Dividend Yield	3.4%
Dividend Growth	-0.9%
Next dividend pay date	08 Jan 25
Ex dividend date	16 Dec 24
Dividend per share	US$3.240
Payout ratio	63%

Recent dividend and buyback updates

Merck (NYSE:MRK) Has Announced That It Will Be Increasing Its Dividend To $0.81

Dec 02

Recent updates

The Strong Earnings Posted By Merck (NYSE:MRK) Are A Good Indication Of The Strength Of The Business

Nov 15

Merck: Keytruda's Sales Projections Outweigh Competitive And Patent Risks

Nov 14

Merck: An Undervalued Dividend Machine

Nov 07

Merck Q3 Earnings Review: Solid Financials May Be Undermined By New Keytruda Threat

Oct 25

Market Still Lacking Some Conviction On Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Oct 15

Merck Is At Support And Should Go Higher (Technical Analysis)

Oct 07

Merck Appears Ready To Return To June Highs (Technical Analysis)

Sep 14

Stability and Growth of Payments

Fetching dividends data

Stable Dividend: MRK's dividends per share have been stable in the past 10 years.

Growing Dividend: MRK's dividend payments have increased over the past 10 years.

Dividend Yield vs Market

Merck Dividend Yield vs Market

How does MRK dividend yield compare to the market?
Segment	Dividend Yield
Company (MRK)	3.3%
Market Bottom 25% (US)	1.4%
Market Top 25% (US)	4.5%
Industry Average (Pharmaceuticals)	2.6%
Analyst forecast (MRK) (up to 3 years)	3.4%

Notable Dividend: MRK's dividend (3.29%) is higher than the bottom 25% of dividend payers in the US market (1.44%).

High Dividend: MRK's dividend (3.29%) is low compared to the top 25% of dividend payers in the US market (4.52%).

Earnings Payout to Shareholders

Earnings Coverage: With its reasonable payout ratio (63.4%), MRK's dividend payments are covered by earnings.

Cash Payout to Shareholders

Cash Flow Coverage: With its reasonable cash payout ratio (55.2%), MRK's dividend payments are covered by cash flows.

Discover strong dividend paying companies

Company Analysis and Financial Data Status

Data	Last Updated (UTC time)
Company Analysis	2024/12/30 09:29
End of Day Share Price	2024/12/30 00:00
Earnings	2024/09/30
Annual Earnings	2023/12/31

Data Sources

The data used in our company analysis is from S&P Global Market Intelligence LLC. The following data is used in our analysis model to generate this report. Data is normalised which can introduce a delay from the source being available.

Package	Data	Timeframe	Example US Source ^*
Company Financials	10 years	Income statement Cash flow statement Balance sheet	SEC Form 10-K SEC Form 10-Q
Analyst Consensus Estimates	+3 years	Forecast financials Analyst price targets	Analyst Research Reports Blue Matrix
Market Prices	30 years	Stock prices Dividends, Splits and Actions	ICE Market Data SEC Form S-1
Ownership	10 years	Top shareholders Insider trading	SEC Form 4 SEC Form 13D
Management	10 years	Leadership team Board of directors	SEC Form 10-K SEC Form DEF 14A
Key Developments	10 years	Company announcements	SEC Form 8-K

^* example for US securities, for non-US equivalent regulatory forms and sources are used.

Unless specified all financial data is based on a yearly period but updated quarterly. This is known as Trailing Twelve Month (TTM) or Last Twelve Month (LTM) Data. Learn more here.

Analysis Model and Snowflake

Details of the analysis model used to generate this report is available on our Github page, we also have guides on how to use our reports and tutorials on Youtube.

Learn about the world class team who designed and built the Simply Wall St analysis model.

Industry and Sector Metrics

Our industry and section metrics are calculated every 6 hours by Simply Wall St, details of our process are available on .

Analyst Sources

Merck & Co., Inc. is covered by 61 analysts. 26 of those analysts submitted the estimates of revenue or earnings used as inputs to our report. Analysts submissions are updated throughout the day.

Analyst	Institution
David Toung	Argus Research Company
Fabrizio Spagna	Axia Financial Research
Ishan Majumdar	Baptista Research

Merck Dividends and Buybacks

Dividend criteria checks 5/6

Key information

Recent dividend and buyback updates

Merck (NYSE:MRK) Has Announced That It Will Be Increasing Its Dividend To $0.81

Upcoming dividend of US$0.77 per share

Recent updates

Merck: A Low-Hanging Fruit To Pick

Merck (NYSE:MRK) Has A Pretty Healthy Balance Sheet

Merck Announces Topline Results from Pivotal Phase 3 Trials Evaluating Investigational, Once-Daily, Oral, Two-Drug, Single-Tablet Regimen of Doravirine/Islatravir (DOR/ISL) for the Treatment of Adults with Virologically Suppressed HIV-1 Infection

Merck Announces FDA Acceptance of Biologics License Application for Clesrovimab, an Investigational Long-Acting Monoclonal Antibody Designed to Protect Infants from RSV Disease During their First RSV Season

Merck: Buy Opportunity Backed By Growth

Merck & Co., Inc. Provides Update on KeyVibe and KEYFORM Clinical Development Programs Evaluating Investigational Vibostolimab and Favezelimab Fixed-Dose Combinations with Pembrolizumab

Merck Receives Positive EU CHMP Opinion for WELIREG®? (belzutifan) as Treatment for Adult Patients with Certain Types of Von Hippel-Lindau Disease-Associated Tumors and for Certain Previously Treated Adult Patients with Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma

Merck Announces Phase 3 KEYLYNK-001 Trial Met Primary Endpoint of Progression-Free Survival (PFS) in Patients With Advanced Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces First Presentation of Data from the Phase 2 Waveline-007 Trial Evaluating Zilovertamab Vedotin

Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Initiation of Phase 3 Study (MOVe-NOW) Evaluating LAGEVRIOTM (Molnupiravir) for the Treatment of Covid-19 in High-Risk Adults

Merck's Sacituzumab Tirumotecan Granted FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation for Advanced EGFR-Mutated NSCLC

Merck (NYSE:MRK) Has Announced That It Will Be Increasing Its Dividend To $0.81

Merck Announces Pivotal Phase 3 Zenith Trial Evaluating Winrevair Met Primary Endpoint At Interim Analysis

Merck & Co., Inc. Appoints Surendralal L. Karsanbha to its Board of Directors, Effective January 1, 2025

Third quarter dividend of US$0.81 announced

Merck & Co., Inc.'s WELIREG (Belzutifan) Approves in China for the Treatment of Adult Patients with Certain Types of Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) Disease-Associated Tumors

Merck Announces Phase 3 Trial of Subcutaneous Pembrolizumab with Berahyaluronidase Alfa Met Primary Endpoints

The Strong Earnings Posted By Merck (NYSE:MRK) Are A Good Indication Of The Strength Of The Business

Merck Receives Positive EU CHMP Opinion for KEYTRUDA Plus Chemotherapy as First-Line Treatment for Adult Patients with Unresectable Non-Epithelioid Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma

Merck: Keytruda's Sales Projections Outweigh Competitive And Patent Risks

Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease and Merck Announces Positive Topline Results from the Phase 3 Komet Trial

Merck Announces Canada's Drug Agency Recommends WINREVAIR (sotatercept) for Reimbursement

Merck: An Undervalued Dividend Machine

Third quarter 2024 earnings: EPS misses analyst expectations

Merck and Moderna, Inc. Initiates Phase 3 Trial Evaluating Adjuvant V940 (mRNA-4157) in Combination with KEYTRUDA (Pembrolizumab) After Neoadjuvant KEYTRUDA and Chemotherapy in Patients with Certain Types of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)

CDC's ACIP Recommends Merck's CAPVAXIVE™ (Pneumococcal 21-valent Conjugate Vaccine) for Pneumococcal Vaccination in Adults 50 Years of Age and Older

Merck Q3 Earnings Review: Solid Financials May Be Undermined By New Keytruda Threat

Merck's KEYTRUDA® (Pembrolizumab) Receives 30th Approval from European Commission with Two New Indications in Gynecologic Cancers

Gilead Sciences, Inc. and Merck Announce Phase 2 Data Showing a Treatment Switch to an Investigational Oral Once-Weekly Combination Regimen of Islatravir and Lenacapavir Maintained Viral Suppression in Adults at Week 48

Merck Announces the Presentation of Positive Results from the Phase 2B/3 Clinical Trial (Mk-1654-004) Evaluating Clesrovimab

Merck’s CAPVAXIVE™ (Pneumococcal 21-valent Conjugate Vaccine) Demonstrates Positive Immune Responses in Adults with Increased Risk for Pneumococcal Disease

Market Still Lacking Some Conviction On Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Merck & Co., Inc. to Report Q3, 2024 Results on Oct 31, 2024

Merck Is At Support And Should Go Higher (Technical Analysis)

FDA Approves Merck's KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) Plus Pemetrexed and Platinum Chemotherapy as First-Line Treatment for Adult Patients with Unresectable Advanced or Metastatic Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma

Merck Announces Overall Survival Results from the Final Analysis of the Phase 3 Keynote-811 Trial Evaluating Keytruda® (Pembrolizumab)

Merck Appears Ready To Return To June Highs (Technical Analysis)

Upcoming dividend of US$0.77 per share

Merck Announces WINREVAIR (Sotatercept) Is Authorized for Use in Canada for Adults with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Merck & Co., Inc. and EyeBio Announce Initiation of Phase 2b/3 Clinical Trial for Restoret™? for the Treatment of Diabetic Macular Edema

Stability and Growth of Payments

Dividend Yield vs Market

Earnings Payout to Shareholders

Cash Payout to Shareholders

Discover strong dividend paying companies

Company Analysis and Financial Data Status

Data Sources

Analysis Model and Snowflake

Industry and Sector Metrics

Analyst Sources