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

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) updated its FY 2024 earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of 8.530-8.650 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of 8.560. The company issued revenue guidance of $63.1 billion-$64.3 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $63.8 billion.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an overweight rating and issued a $135.00 price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. TheStreet cut shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a b+ rating to a c+ rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Truist Financial reiterated a buy rating and set a $142.00 price target (up from $139.00) on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $131.25.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

Shares of MRK stock opened at $127.01 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $126.26 and a 200 day moving average of $115.59. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52 week low of $99.14 and a 52 week high of $133.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $321.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 907.21, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by $0.12. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 9.33% and a net margin of 0.61%. The company had revenue of $14.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.62 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Merck & Co., Inc.

In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.65, for a total transaction of $6,420,395.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 23,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,991,346.35. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.65, for a total transaction of $6,420,395.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 23,619 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,991,346.35. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total value of $124,890.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 19,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,443,972.41. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

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.