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Merck (MRK) Stock Moves -0.54%: What You Should Know

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Merck (MRK - Free Report) closed at $106.73 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.54% move from the prior day. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's 1.64% loss on the day. At the same time, the Dow lost 1.08%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.82%.

Coming into today, shares of the pharmaceutical company had lost 3.58% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector lost 3.72%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.89%.

Merck will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be October 26, 2023. On that day, Merck is projected to report earnings of $1.95 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 5.41%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $15.31 billion, up 2.37% from the year-ago period.

MRK's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $3.01 per share and revenue of $59.57 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -59.76% and +0.48%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Merck. 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.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. Merck is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note Merck's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 35.67. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 14.98, so we one might conclude that Merck is trading at a premium comparatively.

It is also worth noting that MRK currently has a PEG ratio of 4.27. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.8 at yesterday's closing price.

The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 198, which puts it in the bottom 22% 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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