Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.12 EPS

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The company reported $2.28 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.16 by $0.12, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $16.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.87 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 3.76% and a return on equity of 14.05%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($2.06) earnings per share. Merck & Co., Inc. updated its FY 2024 guidance to 7.940-8.040 EPS and its FY24 guidance to $7.94-$8.04 EPS.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock traded down $2.79 on Wednesday, hitting $112.46. The stock had a trading volume of 16,202,075 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,533,465. Merck & Co., Inc. has a twelve month low of $99.14 and a twelve month high of $134.63. The business’s 50 day moving average is $127.75 and its two-hundred day moving average is $126.66. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The stock has a market cap of $284.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 124.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.38.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 7th. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th will be given a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.74%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 16th. Merck & Co., Inc.’s dividend payout ratio is currently 342.22%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MRK has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $142.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Berenberg Bank raised their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $125.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $134.83.

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.