Here's 1 Major Catalyst Behind Merck Stock's Recent 3.8% Bump

After lagging the market over the past couple of years, Merck (NYSE: MRK) has experienced a slight rebound in the last month, thanks to several positive developments. The stock has increased by 20% over this period.One catalyst happened a couple of weeks ago, when Merck's stock popped by nearly 4% on encouraging clinical data. Let's look more into that and determine whether now is a good time to buy shares.Pharmaceutical giants often rely on acquisitions, sometimes at considerable expense, to replenish their pipelines. There's a logic to this strategy. Developing novel medicines from scratch is expensive, risky, and time-consuming. It's often much easier to buy out a company that already has promising candidates in clinical trials -- or even a drug that's already approved.Continue readingWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool