Foolish Choices with a Short-term Focus

Here are some foolish behaviors that can help you ruin your investing nest egg. First of all, invest in poor quality stocks, bonds, and costly mutual funds. Secondly, overpay as often as you can. That includes overpaying for investment advice and fund management. Finally, like many did on Monday when the artificial intelligence scare arose due to the “DeepSeek Revelation,” sell your investments in a panic. NVDA shares dropped dramatically, as did many other technology stocks and ETFs.

I guess I can offer one more tip: don’t diversify your investments. Put all of your investment eggs in one fund or one stock. One of the reasons we own shares of ETFs VYM, SCHD, and DGRO is to diversify. That is also why I own shares of multiple healthcare companies like Pfizer (PFE), Abbie (ABBV), and Merck (MRK).

News from a Healthcare Company

Merck announced that its board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.81 per share for Q2 2025 and authorized a share repurchase program worth $10B. The New Jersey-based pharma giant said shareholders of record at the close of business on Mar. 17, 2025, will be eligible for the dividends to be paid on Apr. 7, 2025. As for share buybacks, the company hasn’t set a time limit for stock purchases.

I generally like to see share repurchases if the purchases are made when the stock market thinks the investment is not desirable. It is the same logic I use when buying an investment: Buy low and then reap the benefits in the future. Buybacks can be very appealing to investors. This Investopedia article helps explain why: INVESTOPEDIA: 4 Reasons Investors Like Buybacks

MRK’s dividend is healthy and sensible. Always check the dividend payout ratio and pay attention to the 5-year growth rate. You want safe dividends and more dividends.

Stock Rover Dividend History

MRK has a good track record when it comes to dividends..

Options Income from Our MRK Shares

YTD income from MRK options is $98.61 in just a couple of weeks. The low dollar amount is based on 100 shares of MRK in my ROTH IRA. I just bought another 100 shares for my traditional IRA this morning.

Company Profile

Merck & Co., Inc. operates as a healthcare company worldwide. It operates through two segments, Pharmaceutical and Animal Health. The Pharmaceutical segment offers human health pharmaceutical products in the areas of oncology, hospital acute care, immunology, neuroscience, virology, cardiovascular, and diabetes under the Keytruda, Bridion, Adempas, Lagevrio, Belsomra, Simponi, and Januvia brands, as well as vaccine products consisting of preventive pediatric, adolescent, and adult vaccines under the Gardasil/Gardasil 9, ProQuad, M-M-R II, Varivax, RotaTeq, Live Oral, Vaxneuvance, Pneumovax 23, and Vaqta names. The Animal Health segment discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets veterinary pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and health management solutions and services, as well as digitally connected identification, traceability, and monitoring products. vIt has development and commercialization agreement for three of Daiichi Sankyo’s deruxtecan ADC candidates, which include patritumab deruxtecan, ifinatamab deruxtecan, and raludotatug deruxtecan for the treatment of multiple solid tumors both as monotherapy and/or in combination with other treatments; and AstraZeneca PLC to co-development and co-commercialize AstraZeneca’s Lynparza products for multiple cancer types, and Koselugo for multiple indications. It also has licensed to develop, manufacture and commercialize LM-299, a novel investigational PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibody from LaNova. The company also has a collaboration agreement with Eisai Co., Ltd., Bayer AG, and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP, as well Moderna, Inc. Merck & Co., Inc. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Rahway, New Jersey.

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