Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Issues Earnings Results

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) issued its earnings results on Thursday. The company reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.07, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $16.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.47 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 40.69% and a net margin of 21.99%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.13 earnings per share. Merck & Co., Inc. updated its FY 2024 guidance to 7.720-7.770 EPS and its FY24 guidance to $7.72-7.77 EPS.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

NYSE:MRK traded down $0.45 during trading on Friday, reaching $101.87. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 10,180,596 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,858,824. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 12 month low of $98.60 and a 12 month high of $134.63. The firm has a market cap of $258.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.39. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $112.58 and a 200-day moving average of $121.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on MRK shares. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $115.00 price objective on the stock. Citigroup decreased their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. UBS Group cut their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $129.93.

About Merck & Co., Inc.

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.