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

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The company reported $1.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.07, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $16.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.13 EPS. 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. Price Performance

MRK traded down $0.45 during trading 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 quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market capitalization 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’s 50 day moving average price is $112.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $121.04. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 12 month low of $98.60 and a 12 month high of $134.63.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on MRK shares. UBS Group cut their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $123.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Bank of America dropped their price target on 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. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Merck & Co., Inc. has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.