Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK)

Merck’s stock has declined by more than 8% over the last 52 weeks. The decline comes alongside a drop that affected the overall healthcare sector. The company managed to beat the earnings estimate for the past several quarters in a row and is currently planning to enter the Hepatitis C market, which is currently dominated by Gilead Sciences.

Recently the FDA has approved Zepatier for the treatment of chronic Hepatitis C, which will compete in a market 90% dominated by Gilead’s Harvoni and Sovaldi. The price for a 12-week course of Zepatier is estimated at $54,000, which is well below the $94,500 and $84,000 that Harvoni and Sovaldi currently sell at, respectively. The approval got the market excited with analysts anticipating Merck to generate around $2.0 billion in sales by 2020, even if Merck captures a small portion of the hep C market.

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a glance at the recent action surrounding Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK).

What does the smart money think about Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)?

At Q4’s end, a total of 70 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 13% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).