Yahoo Finance Here’s Why Merck & Co. (MRK) Shares Closed Strongly in Q1
Carillon Tower Advisers, an investment management company, released its “Carillon Eagle Growth & Income Fund” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The S&P 500 Index continued its recent all-time high, beginning the year's first quarter at a robust 10.6%. This quarter's results followed a common pattern to much of 2023: large outperforming small and growth outperforming value. Energy was the best-performing sector while real estate investment trusts (REITs) were the only sector with negative returns. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2024.
Carillon Eagle Growth & Income Fund highlighted stocks like Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) is a global healthcare company. The one-month return of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) was 1.72%, and its shares gained 18.98% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On June 10, 2024, Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) stock closed at $131.49 per share with a market capitalization of $331.266 billion.
Carillon Eagle Growth & Income Fund stated the following regarding Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
"After posting lackluster returns in 2023, Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) got off to a strong start in January by raising the long-term sales forecasts for its oncology and cardiology pipelines and reporting solid fourth-quarter results, coupled with strong financial guidance for 2024. Merck shares also finished the quarter strong after receiving U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in late March for a new cardiology medicine with the potential to contribute significantly to sales growth over the next several years."
A close-up of a person's hand holding a bottle of pharmaceuticals.
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) is in 29th position on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 95 hedge fund portfolios held Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) at the end of the first quarter which was 98 in the previous quarter. Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK) reported a strong quarter with $15.8 billion in total revenue, up 9% or 12% when excluding the impact of foreign exchange. While we acknowledge the potential of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we discussed Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) and shared the list of best Dow stocks to buy according to hedge funds. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
