Merck is improving its financials and we like that, but we still aren’t interested in shares after the run up during the past year and a half. The pharmaceutical giant’s net debt load is manageable given its strong free cash flows, but dividend growth will require share buybacks to be pared back first in order to make room for payout growth. It will take some time until we get an idea of how well Merck’s recent acquisitions pan out.
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