Retirement Stock Portfolio: 5 Safe Healthcare Stocks to Consider

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

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 82  

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) operates as a healthcare company worldwide. It is one of the top healthcare stocks for a retirement stock portfolio. On November 1, Merck & Co. noted that it has entered into a 10-year strategic partnership with California-based Veeva Systems to help Kenilworth, a cancer drugmaker, to reduce operational costs and optimize experience. This collaboration was built on an existing 12-year partnership. 

On November 1, Guggenheim analyst Seamus Fernandez maintained a Buy rating on Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) stock and raised the price target on Merck to $111 from $104, noting the raised sales forecasts for certain medicines.

Among the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Camas, Washington-based investment firm Fisher Asset Management is a leading shareholder in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) with 12 million shares worth more than $1 billion. 

In its Q2 2022 investor letter, Chartwell Investment Partners, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“In the Dividend Equity accounts, the three best performers in Q2 includes Merck (NYSE:MRK, 3.6%), up 12.0%. Merck, like other pharma companies, is in a defensive business, but the stock also did well as peak-sales estimates for their flagship drug, Keytruda, have gone up (JPMorgan estimates $32 billion in sales by 2026).”