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

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) issued an update on its FY24 earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $8.53-8.65 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share 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.

Merck & Co., Inc. Price Performance

NYSE:MRK traded up $0.48 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $131.20. The company had a trading volume of 7,758,230 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,512,518. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52-week low of $99.14 and a 52-week high of $133.10. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $126.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $115.88. The company has a market capitalization of $332.33 billion, a PE ratio of 145.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 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 earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported $2.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.13. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 3.76% and a return on equity of 14.15%. The company had revenue of $15.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.21 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.40 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 8.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. 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. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. TheStreet downgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a b+ rating to a c+ rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Societe Generale downgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a hold rating to a sell rating and set a $104.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, March 11th. Finally, Berenberg Bank upped their price objective on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $140.00 to $143.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $131.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total value of $124,890.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 19,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,443,972.41. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 50,694 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were 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 available through the SEC website. Also, insider Joseph Romanelli sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.89, for a total transaction 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. 0.09% of the stock is owned by 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.