Seamus Fernadez At Leerink Swann Keeps Merck's 12 Month Price Target Very Near Current Market Price -- At $57

As a rule, over the last three or so years, Mr. Fernandez has held Merck's one year forward price target well below the levels his peers -- over at JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs to name a few, have articulated. His last widely disseminated price target was $48.45, back in August of 2013.

I like his independence -- and his rather skeptical eye. [Leerink's investment banking/M&A advising business lines have essentially no chance of winning Merck's business -- so it never competes for Merck's capital markets business allocations. The opposite is true of all the other four I named.] Sheamus has been closer to right than these other four, of late, on most Merck-related forward-looking guesses. Overnight, he bumped up his price target, but only to less than two per cent above today's NYSE price. He is saying that Merck is fully valued here. And I think I. . . agree.

From the online edition TickerReport (okay!) -- here's the bit:

. . . .Analysts at Leerink Swann boosted their price objective on shares of Merck & Co (NYSE:MRK) from $49.00 to $57.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, AnalystRatingsNetwork reports. Leerink Swann’s target price would indicate a potential upside of [only] 1.30% from the stock’s previous close. . . .

We will keep you posted.