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

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) updated its FY24 earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided EPS guidance of $8.53-8.65 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $8.56. The company issued revenue guidance of $63.1-64.3 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $63.81 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 8.530-8.650 EPS.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on MRK shares. StockNews.com upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an overweight rating and issued a $135.00 price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. TD Cowen upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $125.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Truist Financial reiterated a buy rating and issued a $142.00 price objective (up from $139.00) on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Berenberg Bank lifted their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $131.25.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Up 0.1 %

MRK opened at $127.01 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $321.72 billion, a PE 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. The business has a 50 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.

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

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

In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. 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 in the company, valued at $2,991,346.35. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. 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 in the company, valued at $2,991,346.35. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of Merck & Co., Inc. 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 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. 0.09% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.