Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Releases FY24 Earnings Guidance

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) updated its FY24 earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $7.72-7.77 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.75. The company issued revenue guidance of $63.6-64.1 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $64.14 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 7.720-7.770 EPS.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on MRK. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $132.00 to $134.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped 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 note on Wednesday, July 31st. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $150.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of Merck & Co., Inc. to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $131.46.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

Shares of Merck & Co., Inc. stock traded down $3.18 on Thursday, hitting $101.65. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,265,162 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,791,894. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52-week low of $98.60 and a 52-week high of $134.63. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $112.87 and a 200-day moving average price of $121.17. The company has a market capitalization of $257.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.39.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $2.28 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.12. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 40.69%. The business had revenue of $16.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.87 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($2.06) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 7.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.