Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.07 EPS

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The company reported $1.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.07, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $16.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.47 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 40.69%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $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. Trading Down 0.4 %

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

MRK has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays decreased their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 7th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $123.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $125.00 to $110.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $129.93.

Merck & Co., Inc. 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.