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

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The company reported $1.57 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous 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 %

NYSE MRK traded down $0.45 on Friday, reaching $101.87. The company had a trading volume of 10,180,596 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,858,824. The firm has a market cap of $258.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.40, a P/E/G 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. Merck & Co., Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $98.60 and a fifty-two week high of $134.63. The business has a 50 day moving average of $112.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $121.04.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on MRK shares. Wolfe Research raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $125.00 to $110.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Barclays reduced their target price 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 target on Merck & Co., Inc. from $130.00 to $123.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, Evercore ISI raised Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.