Hot Dividend Stocks To Watch Right Now

Hot Dividend Stocks To Watch Right Now: Merck & Company Inc.(MRK)

Merck & Co., Inc. provides various health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health, and consumer care products. The company?s Pharmaceutical segment provides human health pharmaceutical products, such as therapeutic and preventive agents for the treatment of human disorders in the areas of bone, respiratory, immunology, dermatology, cardiovascular, diabetes and obesity, infectious diseases, neurosciences and ophthalmology, oncology, vaccines, and women's health and endocrine. This segment also offers human health vaccines, such as preventive pediatric, adolescent, and adult vaccines. Its Animal Health segment discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets animal health products. This segment offers antibiotics, anti-inflammatory products, vaccines, products for the treatment of fertility disorders, and parasiticides for cattle, swine, horses, poultry, dogs, cats, salmons, and fish. The Consumer Care segment develops, manufac tures, and markets over-the-counter, foot care, and sun care products. Its over-the-counter product line includes non-drowsy antihistamines; treatment for occasional constipation; decongestant-free cold/flu medicine for people with high blood pressure; nasal decongestant spray; and treatment for frequent heartburn. This segment?s foot care products comprise topical antifungal, and foot and sneaker odor/wetness products; and sun care products include sun care lotions, sprays and dry oils; and sunburn relief products. The company serves drug wholesalers and retailers, hospitals, government agencies, physicians, physician distributors, veterinarians, animal producers, and managed health care providers, as well as food chain and mass merchandiser outlets in the United States and Canada. Merck & Co., Inc. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Whitehouse Station, New ! Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  However, biotech blogger Adam Feuerstein then wrote an article for The Street saying the data released "falls short of spectacular." He added that Gilead Sciences, Inc's (NASDAQ: GILD) Sovaldi, the only approved hepatitis C "nuc" on the market and Merck & Co. Inc's (NYSE: MRK) MK-3682 that was acquired when they bought Idenix Pharmaceuticals, both achieved larger viral load reductions faster than Achillion Pharmaceuticals' ACH-3422.

• [By Johanna Bennett]

  Talk about a blast from the past. After waiting for years, U.S. drug giant Merck & Co. (MRK) set loose clinical trial results at today's session of the American Heart Association's annual meeting showing that the cholesterol-lowering medication Vytorin, which combines the drug Zocor and Zetia into one pill, helped prevent heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular events.

  Bloomberg News

  The study results showed a modest benefit – a 6.4% reduction in cardiovascular events –in high-risk patients compared to those being treated with Zocor alone. But the data is regarded as a big deal for Zetia.

  Unlike Zocor, which is a member of the blockbuster statin class of cholesterol drugs, Zetia fights cholesterol by preventing its absorption from food. The data released today marks the first time a drug outside the statin family was shown to help lower the risk of serious cardiovascular problems.

  Sales of Vytorin and Zetia have suffered over the year amid patent expirations and questions about whether the drugs lowered LDL without improving cardiovascular outcomes.

  Share of Merck have gained rose 1% to $59.57 at 1:39 p.m.

  As Mark Schoenebaum, the pharmaceutical analyst at Evercore ISI, wrote in a note out today:

  The trial hit…The results today are positive for Merck’s Zetia and Vytorin but go beyond by suggesting that LDL lowering with drugs other than statins provides a cardi! ovascular! benefit (a reaffirming of the LDL hypothesis that was beginning to be questioned) and that LDL levels should possibly be driven lower than guidelines have recommended (below 70 mg/dl).  Today’s results add the first real data point to our understanding of the relationship between LDL reduction and outcomes at very low LDL levels…

  Schoenebaum also writes that today's study results bode well for other typed of cholesterol-lowering drugs now in R&D pipelines, namely the PCKSK9 inhibitors being developed b

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  In the Hepatitis-C wars, small setbacks for Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Merck (MRK) could be good news for Gilead Sciences (GILD).

  Getty Images

  What happened? For Johnson & Johnson, it was a decision by Japan’s ministry of health to ordered subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals to put new warnings on the labels of Sovriad. RBC’s Michael Yee and team explain what that means for Gilead Sciences:

• [By Shauna O'Brien]

  Before Monday’s opening bell, Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK) released its third quarter financial results and full year outlook. While EPS beat analysts’ estimates, Q3 revenue fell short of expectations.

  MRK’s Earnings in Brief

  Merck reported third quarter earnings of $895 million, or 31 cents per share, down from $1.1 billion, or 38 cents per share, a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings dropped from 92 cents to 90 cents per share, but beat analysts’ estimate of 88 cents per share. Revenue for the quarter was $10.56 billion, down from $11.03 billion last year. On average, analysts expected to see revenue of $10.67 billion. Looking forward, MRK expects to see FY2014 GAAP earnings between $4.06 and $4.29 per share and non-GAAP earnings between $3.46 and $3.50 per share. Analysts expect to see Fy2014 earnings of  $3.47 per share. The company expects to see FY2014 revenue between $42.4 billion and $42.8 billion. Analysts expect to see $42.55 billion in revenue.!

  CEO ! Commentary

  Kenneth C. Frazier, chairman and CEO of Merck, commented: “Last October, we launched a multi-year initiative to transform Merck and build a platform for sustained, future growth. One year later, we delivered solid third-quarter results and are making steady progress in our transformation, including divesting non-core assets, reducing our expense base and investing in our promising new product launches and pipeline.”

  MRK’s Dividend

  Merck paid its last 44 cent dividend on October 7. We expect the company to declare its next dividend in November.

  Stock Performance

  Merck shares were up 39 cents, or 0.68%, during pre-market trading Monday. The stock is up 15.1% YTD.

  MRK Dividend Snapshot

  As of Market Close on October 24, 2014

  Click here to see the complete history of MRK dividends.

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/hot-dividend-stocks-to-watch-right-now-5.html