Dow Today: Merck (MRK) Lower
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
(
^DJI
) is trading down 30 points (-0.2%) at 12,686 as of Thursday, Feb 2, 2012, 12:40 p.m. ET. During this time, 376.8 million shares of the 30 Dow components have changed hands vs. an average daily trading volume of 818.6 million. The NYSE advances/declines ratio sits at 1,655 issues advancing vs. 1,221 declining with 149 unchanged.
Holding back the Dow today is
(NYSE:
), which is lagging the broader Dow index with a 53-cent decline (-1.4%) bringing the stock to $38.10. This single loss is lowering the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 4.01 points or roughly accounting for 13.4% of the Dow's overall loss. Volume for Merck currently sits at 10.4 million shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 16.2 million shares.
Merck has a market cap of $118.2 billion and is part of the
sector and
industry. Shares are up 2.5% year to date as of Wednesday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 4.4%.
Merck & Co., Inc. provides various health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health, and consumer care products. The company has a P/E ratio of 27.9, below the average drugs industry P/E ratio of 28.1 and above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.
TheStreet Ratings rates Merck as a
. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, increase in net income, good cash flow from operations and solid stock price performance. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had somewhat disappointing return on equity.
- You can view the full Merck Ratings Report.
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