5 Best Healthcare Stocks To Buy Now

3. Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 84

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) is an American healthcare company providing products for both human and animal health. Some of the diseases that its products target are cancer, neurological diseases, and diabetes. The firm is based in Kenilworth, New Jersey.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) has its eyes on the future as it currently has eight drugs under development and it is also expanding the scope of its current ones to target more diseases. Furthermore, the firm’s dividend has a CAGR of 8.8% over the past five years and has been growing consistently for more than a decade. Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) pays out a 69 cent quarterly dividend for a high 3.1% yield.

Barclays raised Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)’s share price target to $101 from $97 in July 2022, outlining that the firm performed strongly in its recent earnings. Insider Monkey profiled 912 hedge funds during this year’s first quarter and discovered that 84 had invested in the company.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)’s largest investor is Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management which owns 11 million shares that are worth $970 million.

Carillon Tower Advisers mentioned the company in its Q1 2022 investor letter. Here is what the fund said:

“Merck (NYSE:MRK) is a global pharmaceutical and chemicals company based in Germany. Shares fell along with other vaccine-linked names after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked a rule mandating that businesses with more than 100 employees require those employed to either be vaccinated or tested weekly.”