Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Issues FY 2024 Earnings Guidance

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) issued an update on its FY 2024 earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of 7.720-7.770 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of 7.740. The company issued revenue guidance of $63.6 billion-$64.1 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $64.2 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. also updated its FY24 guidance to $7.72-7.77 EPS.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

NYSE:MRK traded down $0.44 on Friday, reaching $101.88. The stock had a trading volume of 10,180,978 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,858,824. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1-year low of $98.60 and a 1-year high of $134.63. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $112.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $120.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The company has a market capitalization of $258.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.39.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $1.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.07. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 40.69%. The company had revenue of $16.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.47 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.13 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.76 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on MRK shares. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $143.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays cut their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Evercore ISI upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Wolfe Research upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $125.00 to $110.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.