At a glance
During the third quarter of 2014, the Merck share price rose by almost 15%. Compared to the relevant indices, its performance was pronounced, outperforming the DAX® by approximately 19 percentage points, the relevant index for the chemical industry by roughly 17 percentage points, and the relevant index for the pharmaceutical industry by slightly more than 7 percentage points.
In absolute terms, the Merck share price reached its third-quarter peak and all-time high on September 24, 2014 at € 73.96 – retrospectively adjusted for the 1:2 share split described below – and ended the quarter only marginally lower at € 73.03. The average daily trading volume in the third quarter of 2014 was 606,000 shares, about 46% higher than in the prior-year quarter and about 18% higher than in the second quarter of 2014.
On June 30, 2014, the 1:2 share split became effective. On May 9, 2014, the Annual General Meeting resolved to re-divide the share capital of Merck KGaA so that one existing company no-par value share with a pro rata amount of the share capital of € 2.60 was divided into two no-par value shares with a pro rata amount of the share capital of € 1.30 each (share split). This has had no influence on the share price performance since then.
In the first nine months of 2014, the Merck share price rose by approximately 12%. Thus, Merck shares outperformed the DAX® by almost 13 percentage points and the relevant chemicals index by approximately 11 percentage points. However, it underperformed the relevant pharmaceuticals index by almost 6 percentage points, largely due to its weak performance in the first quarter of 2014.
Share price development from July 1, 2014 to September 30, 2014
