Merck (MRK) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know
Merck (MRK) closed at $78.02 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.15% move from the prior day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.75%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the pharmaceutical company had gained 0.87% over the past month. This has outpaced the Medical sector's loss of 4.84% and lagged the S&P 500's gain of 2.74% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from MRK as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be July 29, 2021. In that report, analysts expect MRK to post earnings of $1.48 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 8.03%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $11.92 billion, up 9.62% from the year-ago period.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $5.73 per share and revenue of $47.3 billion. These totals would mark changes of -3.54% and -1.44%, respectively, from last year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for MRK. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 7.6% lower within the past month. MRK is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that MRK has a Forward P/E ratio of 13.6 right now. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 14.79.
It is also worth noting that MRK currently has a PEG ratio of 2.22. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. MRK's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.2 as of yesterday's close.
The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 123, which puts it in the top 49% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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