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Merck (MRK) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
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Merck (MRK - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $79.83, moving -0.81% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.18%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.15%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.5%.
Heading into today, shares of the pharmaceutical company had lost 1.25% over the past month, lagging the Medical sector's gain of 2.44% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.22% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from MRK as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, MRK is projected to report earnings of $1.35 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 16.38%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $12.59 billion, up 6.06% from the prior-year quarter.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $5.90 per share and revenue of $48.09 billion, which would represent changes of +13.68% and +2.66%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for MRK. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of 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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.08% lower. MRK is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that MRK has a Forward P/E ratio of 13.64 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 13.55, which means MRK is trading at a premium to the group.
It is also worth noting that MRK currently has a PEG ratio of 1.9. 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 2.15 as of yesterday's close.
The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 168, putting it in the bottom 35% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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Merck (MRK) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
Merck (MRK - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $79.83, moving -0.81% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.18%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.15%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.5%.
Heading into today, shares of the pharmaceutical company had lost 1.25% over the past month, lagging the Medical sector's gain of 2.44% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.22% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from MRK as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, MRK is projected to report earnings of $1.35 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 16.38%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $12.59 billion, up 6.06% from the prior-year quarter.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $5.90 per share and revenue of $48.09 billion, which would represent changes of +13.68% and +2.66%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for MRK. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of 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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.08% lower. MRK is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that MRK has a Forward P/E ratio of 13.64 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 13.55, which means MRK is trading at a premium to the group.
It is also worth noting that MRK currently has a PEG ratio of 1.9. 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 2.15 as of yesterday's close.
The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 168, putting it in the bottom 35% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.