Here’s Why Investors Consider Merck & Co. (MRK) a Safe Stock

Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Value Fund” fourth quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, the fund outperformed the Russell 1000 Value Index. Its Investor Class fund ARTLX returned 14.04%, Advisor Class fund APDLX posted a return of 14.14%, and Institutional Class fund APHLX returned 14.10% in the quarter, compared to a 12.42% return for the benchmark index. Positive stock selection led to the outperformance of the fund in the quarter. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2022.

Artisan Value Fund highlighted stocks like Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) in the Q4 2022 investor letter. Headquartered in Rahway, New Jersey, Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) is a healthcare company. On March 1, 2023, Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) stock closed at $106.65 per share. One-month return of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) was 3.08%, and its shares gained 38.24% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) has a market capitalization of $270.741 billion.

Artisan Value Fund made the following comment about Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) in its Q4 2022 investor letter:

“Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) is a provider of health care solutions including prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health and consumer care products. Shares have benefited from investors seeking safety in areas with less economic and interest rate sensitivity. With about one third of its sales generated by blockbuster oncology drug Keytruda, the key issue for investors is the success of its large R&D pipeline to replace those sales when Keytruda comes off patent in 2028. However, Merck seems to be getting little credit from investors for the 60+ programs it has in clinical development, despite having several solid and large new product opportunities. Additionally, the company’s strong balance sheet and robust free cash flow provide it multiple options for future partnerships and acquisitions, besides return of capital to shareholders via dividends and share repurchases.”

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Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 77 hedge fund portfolios held Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 82 in the previous quarter.

We discussed Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) in another article and shared the list of drug companies in USA and their China reliance. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2022 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.