Merck & Co. MRK

equity

Price History

1985-01 · DCA start$2.54

Time underwater

How far below its previous all-time high the price sat, each month. 0% means a new high.

1985-012026-08 · 0.0%

Worst drawdown: −74%, peaking Dec 2000 and bottoming Feb 2009 — 257 months below the prior high before recovering.

DCA Backtest

Start month

Monthly amount (USD)

Invested: $50,000
Value today: $287,864
Return: +475.7%
Months invested: 500

Scenarios

Inflation — the same contributions merely keeping pace with CPI would be $90,910 today, so the real (inflation-adjusted) return is +216.6%.

Lump sum instead — $50,000 all at once in Jan 1985: $2,611,878 (+5123.8%) — lump sum came out ahead.

Worst timing — same monthly amount started at the all-time high (Mar 2024): $3,853 on $3,000 invested (+28.4%).

⚠ Price returns only — dividends are not included. This understates the true return of dividend-paying shares, and any comparison against crypto (which pays no dividends) is biased against equities by roughly the dividend yield, compounded.

If this saved you a spreadsheet — buy me a coffee.

Every start month at once

Each cell is the return-to-date of £/$/€100-a-month DCA started that month. Click a cell to load it in the backtest above. The ringed cell is the all-time-high start — the worst timing scenario.

	J	F	M	A	M	J	J	A	S	O	N	D
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026

Legend:−50%−20%0%+50%+200%+1000%worst timing (ATH)Selected 1985-01: +475.7%

About Merck & Co.

Merck & Co., Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Rahway, New Jersey. The company does business as Merck Sharp & Dohme or MSD outside the United States and Canada. The company is ranked fifth on the list of largest biomedical companies by revenue. (Wikipedia)

It's a listed company categorised under health care and pharmaceuticals, with a market cap of about $327.9B.

It rates High Risk at 2.9/5, meaning several rated factors score badly, so this carries materially more risk than a typical holding.

What pushes the score up: earnings quality (5.0/5) and leverage / financial (3.0/5).

Scoring well: liquidity at 1.0/5.

Not yet researched: concentration, governance. These are excluded from the score rather than guessed, so the real risk may be higher than what’s shown.

Ratings summarise sourced facts against fixed rules — not investment advice, and no substitute for your own diligence.

Risk Profile

High Risk(2.9/5)80% rated

How these ratings work

Market / Volatility2.7/5 · weight 20%

Annualised volatility (3yr)2/522.7
Max drawdown from ATH4/574.2
Beta vs S&P 5002/50.54

Liquidity1.0/5 · weight 15%

Avg daily $ volume1/51.3bn
Float % of shares outstandingnot yet researched

Leverage / Financial3.0/5 · weight 20%

Debt / equity3/51.3
Interest coverage (EBIT / interest)not yet researched

Earnings Quality5.0/5 · weight 15%

3yr EPS volatility5/53,328

Concentrationunrated · weight 10%

Largest customer, % of revenuenot yet researched
Geographic revenue concentrationnot yet researched

Governanceunrated · weight 10%

Board independence %not yet researched
Share structurenot yet researched
Litigation / audit historynot yet researched

Sector / Regulatory3.0/5 · weight 10%

Sector regulatory exposure3/5elevated

Linked Assets

Same sector, or return-correlated — worth knowing what else might move if this one does.