What smart money is saying about Merck & Co., Inc.
2 funds in our archive have pitched Merck & Co., Inc., most recently Baron Health Care Fund in March 2026.
Merck & Co., Inc. is a global healthcare leader with operations spanning two core divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Animal Health. The Pharmaceutical segment is dedicated to human health, offering a broad spectrum of medicinal products. These cover crucial therapeutic areas such as oncology, acute hospital care, immunology, neuroscience, virology, cardiovascular conditions, and diabetes. This division also develops vital preventive vaccines for pediatric, adolescent, and adult populations. Meanwhile, the Animal Health segment focuses on the research, development, manufacturing, and marketing of veterinary medications, vaccines, and comprehensive health management solutions for animals. This division further provides innovative digital products designed for animal identification, traceability, and continuous monitoring. Merck's extensive clientele encompasses drug wholesalers, pharmacies, hospitals, and government agencies. It also serves managed healthcare organizations, including health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and pharmacy benefit managers, as well as various other institutional clients. Additionally, the company supplies products to individual physicians and their distributors, veterinarians, and livestock producers. The organization actively engages in strategic collaborations with companies such as AstraZeneca PLC, Bayer AG, Eisai Co., Ltd., Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, and Gilead Sciences, Inc. These partnerships are specifically aimed at the joint development and commercialization of prolonged-acting therapies for HIV. Established in 1891, Merck & Co., Inc. maintains its corporate headquarters in Kenilworth, New Jersey.
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Fund signal · last 12 months
17 lettersToo few moves on Merck & Co., Inc. yet for a clear signal
Moves described in fund letters in our archive. A sentence published word for word by several funds of one house in the same quarter counts once.
Position history
Between Q2 2025 and Q3 2026, 19 fund letters reported a position in Merck & Co., Inc., with 4 buys (opened or added) and 2 sells (trimmed or exited).
| Quarter | Letters | Bought | Sold | Theses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q3 2026 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Q2 2026 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Q1 2026 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Q4 2025 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Q3 2025 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Q2 2025 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Bought and Sold count moves: the same sentence published by several funds of one house in a quarter counts once.
Fund activity · 19 positions · 7 moves
- September 2026
“Our top contributors for the quarter4 were Pfizer, Merck, Ameriprise Financial, Danaher, and Prudential Financial.”
Merck & Co., Inc. - September 2026
Listed in Antipodes Global Fund (Institutional Clients)’s reported holdings.
Merck & Co., Inc. - September 2026
“We added to positions in Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Merck & Co., Inc., and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated.”
Merck & Co., Inc. - HoldsAugustine Asset Management Quarterly FundSeptember 2026
“Positive contributions from US technology (Apple, Microsoft), US healthcare (Halozyme, Merck, Gilead, Regeneron), Japanese financials (Mizuho, Mitsubishi UFJ), and European energy (Shell, TotalEnergies) more than offset slight detractions from European technology (ASML), European and US industrials (Siemens, CSX), and European healthcare (Novo, Sanofi).”
Merck & Co., Inc. - TrimmedAntipodes Global Value FundSeptember 2026
“Merck (Trim): We trimmed Merck over the Quarter following a period of solid performance and as shares approached our valuation target.”
Merck & Co., Inc. - September 2026
“Merck (Trim): We trimmed Merck over the Quarter following a period of solid performance and as shares approached our valuation target.”
Merck & Co., Inc. - September 2026
“Merck (Trim): We trimmed Merck over the Quarter following a period of solid performance and as shares approached our valuation target.”
Merck & Co., Inc. - September 2026
“Top 10 holdings Weighting (%) Alphabet Inc. Class A 6.31 NVIDIA Corporation 3.54 Apple Inc. 3.28 Micron Technology, Inc. 2.91 QUALCOMM Incorporated 2.70 CME Group Inc. Class A 2.43 JPMorgan Chase & Co. 2.26 Merck & Co., Inc. 2.13”
Merck & Co., Inc. - HoldsSomma Investimentos Fund FamilySeptember 2026
“The Open Vista Medical Sciences fund presented, in September, a return decline of 0.4%, equivalent to a decline of 0.1% in dollars. The global healthcare sector registered a decline of 1.8% in dollars in the month, therefore the fund presented performance considerably superior to the sector's performance. In September 2026, the global healthcare sector presented a divergence between the improvement in fundamentals and the lag in capital allocation. After two years of valuation compression of the sector's leading companies, the fundamental inflection point of the pharmaceutical and life sciences segments was confirmed by multiple positive indicators throughout September, but the global allocation of investors in the sector remained below expectations, with the flow of resources extremely concentrated in AI infrastructure, which ended up masking the earnings dynamics that the healthcare sector has been accumulating. From the point of view of sector dynamics, the most relevant change in September came from the dissipation of regulatory uncertainty and the acceleration of the innovation cycle. The signals emitted at the 24th Global Healthcare Conference of Morgan Stanley bank indicated that policymakers in the United States began to prioritize "sector stability" and greater clarity on tariffs and the drug pricing framework significantly reduced risk. In parallel, an outlook report published by Credit Lyonnais Securities, in early September, pointed out that the global pharmaceutical supply chain is entering a decade-long restructuring period, with more than US$ 500 billion in branded drug sales facing patent expiration between 2026 and 2032 — the so-called "patent cliff" —, which will force large pharmaceutical companies to intensify investments in R&D and mergers and acquisitions activities, especially benefiting life sciences companies and contract development and manufacturing platforms with scale and global presence. Among the activities of companies in the sector, the approval by Eli Lilly of the combination drug Inluriyo with Verzenio, to treat certain cases of advanced or metastatic breast cancer, stands out. In the clinical study, the combination provided a median progression-free survival, that is, the period in which the disease did not worsen, of 11.1 months, versus 5.5 months with Inluriyo alone. Novartis received a positive opinion from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency for Cosentyx, an anti-inflammatory drug intended for the treatment of polymyalgia rheumatica. The opinion is not yet equivalent to final approval by the European Union. Roche reported that the treatment evaluated in the CELESTIMO study statistically significantly improved progression-free survival in patients with follicular lymphoma and also announced the European approval of Susvimo, a treatment system for a form of age-related macular degeneration that causes vision loss. AstraZeneca also reported advances with Etcamah, intended for certain cases of advanced breast cancer, and with tozorakimab, aimed at respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Novo Nordisk presented results from CagriSema, an experimental combination of two drugs for obesity and diabetes, which had not yet received regulatory approval. Together, these events show innovation in oncology, obesity, diabetes, ophthalmology and respiratory diseases. The clinical indicators were disclosed by the companies themselves and may be subject to methodological limitations and have not yet been converted into estimates of revenue, profit or stock returns. The fund's main positions include pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies such as Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Abbvie and Merck, which together represent 27.1% of the fund's investments, in addition to health insurance companies, with emphasis on UnitedHealth. The ten largest positions represent 50.8% of the fund's net assets.”
Merck & Co., Inc. - HoldsRhenman Healthcare Equity L/SAugust 2026
“The best contributors for the month were all biopharma names, including Iovance, Insmed and Merck.”
Merck & Co., Inc. - June 2026
“Merck & Co., Inc. 1.94”
Merck & Co., Inc. - June 2026
“Top net sales for the quarter Net Amount Sold ($M) AstraZeneca PLC 3.0 Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 2.3 Apogee Therapeutics, Inc. 2.0 Terns Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 1.8 Stryker Corporation 1.7 We reduced our positions in AstraZeneca PLC and Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. due to valuation. We sold Apogee Therapeutics, Inc. and Terns Pharmaceuticals, Inc. following announcements that they were being acquired, Apogee by AbbVie Inc. and Terns by Merck & Co., Inc. , another Fund holding .”
Merck & Co., Inc. - June 2026
Listed in Distillate Capital Multi-Strategy’s reported holdings.
Merck & Co., Inc. - March 2026
“We also trimmed our positions in Kimberly-Clark, Applied Materials, Omnicom, Merck, Ameriprise Financial, Gen Digital, American Express, Carlyle Group, Chubb.”
Merck & Co., Inc. - December 2025
“In the Health Care sector, our position in Merck returned 26.5% during the quarter, reflecting continued strength across oncology, vaccines and cardiometabolic therapies, alongside solid contributions from newer products.”
Merck & Co., Inc. - December 2025
“Merck’s (+26.5%) third-quarter results reflected continued strength across oncology, vaccines, and cardiometabolic therapies, alongside solid contributions from newer products.”
Merck & Co., Inc. - December 2025
“Two pharmaceutical companies, Eli Lilly and Merck, contributed strongly to performance during the quarter.”
Merck & Co., Inc. - September 2025
“Within healthcare, we increased exposure via Merck, as the market remains fixated on the company’s ability to offset Keytruda’s patent cliff from late 2028.”
Merck & Co., Inc. - AddedBA Beutel Goodman US Value FundJune 2025
“we also added to existing positions in Ameriprise Financial Inc., Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp., Amgen Inc., Merck & Co Inc., Medtronic plc, Qualcomm Inc. and Chubb Ltd.”
Merck & Co., Inc.
Also mentioned · 7
These funds discuss Merck & Co., Inc. as a competitor, benchmark or comparable, without disclosing a position in it.
- September 2026
“Positive clinical trial results from Moderna and Merck for their personalised cancer vaccine also helped lift sentiment towards biotech,”
Merck & Co., Inc. - September 2026
“Healthcare benefited from quarterly earnings that showed a continued normalisation in growth following the post-pandemic slowdown. Positive clinical trial results from Moderna and Merck for their personalised cancer vaccine also helped lift sentiment towards biotech, providing a further boost to a sector that had been out of favour with investors.”
Merck & Co., Inc. - September 2026
“Positive clinical trial results from Moderna and Merck for their personalised cancer vaccine also helped lift sentiment towards biotech, providing a further boost to a sector that had been out of favour with investors.”
Merck & Co., Inc. - September 2026
“Healthcare benefited from quarterly earnings that showed a continued normalisation in growth following the post-pandemic slowdown. Positive clinical trial results from Moderna and Merck for their personalised cancer vaccine also helped lift sentiment towards biotech, providing a further boost to a sector that had been out of favour with investors.”
Merck & Co., Inc. - September 2026
“Positive clinical trial results from Moderna and Merck for their personalised cancer vaccine also helped lift sentiment towards biotech, providing a further boost to a sector that had been out of favour with investors.”
Merck & Co., Inc. - June 2026
“which could cost $500M-$1B in payments to Merck for co-development agreements, profit sharing on label expansion, cross licensing, etc.”
Merck & Co., Inc. - MentionedArquitos Capital ManagementDecember 2025
“The commercial name for sotatercept is Winrevair. It is owned by Merck.”
Merck & Co., Inc.
Fund coverage · 2 theses
- Baron Health Care FundMarch 2026
Merck is a large pharma company managing the Keytruda patent cliff with acquisitions, pipeline investment, and a discounted valuation.
Read the full thesis - Artisan Value Income StrategyDecember 2025
Merck is a major healthcare company with a deep late-stage pipeline, strong balance sheet, and robust free cash flow that support partnerships, M&A, and capital returns despite concerns over Keytruda’s patent expiry.
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