5 Best Healthcare Dividend Stocks to Buy Now

4. Merck & Company, Inc. (NYSE: MRK)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 79
Dividend Yield: 3.4%

Merck & Company, Inc. (NYSE: MRK) is a healthcare company operating through its Pharmaceutical and Animal Health segments to offer a range of medical products. The company has collaborations with other companies like AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ: AZN) and others. It ranks 4th on our list of the best healthcare dividend stocks to buy now.

Robyn Karnauskas, an analyst at Truist, holds a Buy rating on shares of Merck & Company, Inc. (NYSE: MRK) as well, as of this July. The analyst’s price target on the shares was set at $92.

In the second quarter of 2021, Merck & Company, Inc. (NYSE: MRK) had an EPS of $1.31, missing estimates by $0.04. The company’s revenue was $11.40 billion, up 4.87% year over year and beating estimates by $208.55 million. Merck & Company, Inc. (NYSE: MRK) has gained 8.19% in the past 6 months and 0.95% year to date.

By the end of the first quarter of 2021, 79 hedge funds out of the 866 tracked by Insider Monkey held stakes in Merck & Company, Inc. (NYSE: MRK) worth roughly $6.5 billion. This is compared to 82 hedge funds in the previous quarter with a total stake value of approximately $7.12 billion.