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Here's Why Merck (MRK) Gained But Lagged the Market Today
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Merck (MRK - Free Report) ended the recent trading session at $123.99, demonstrating a +0.19% swing from the preceding day's closing price. The stock's change was less than the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.03%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.34%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.51%.
The pharmaceutical company's stock has dropped by 2.92% in the past month, falling short of the Medical sector's gain of 2.1% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.21%.
The upcoming earnings release of Merck will be of great interest to investors. In that report, analysts expect Merck to post earnings of $2.12 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 51.43%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $15.32 billion, up 5.74% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $8.58 per share and a revenue of $64.04 billion, demonstrating changes of +468.21% and +6.53%, respectively, from the preceding year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Merck. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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.
The Zacks Rank system, spanning from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), boasts an impressive track record of outperformance, audited externally, with #1 ranked stocks yielding an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.24% lower. Merck is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, Merck currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 14.43. This expresses no noticeable deviation compared to the average Forward P/E of 14.43 of its industry.
It is also worth noting that MRK currently has a PEG ratio of 0.49. 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 1.71 at yesterday's closing price.
The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 171, this industry ranks in the bottom 33% of all industries, numbering over 250.
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.
Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.
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Here's Why Merck (MRK) Gained But Lagged the Market Today
Merck (MRK - Free Report) ended the recent trading session at $123.99, demonstrating a +0.19% swing from the preceding day's closing price. The stock's change was less than the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.03%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.34%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.51%.
The pharmaceutical company's stock has dropped by 2.92% in the past month, falling short of the Medical sector's gain of 2.1% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.21%.
The upcoming earnings release of Merck will be of great interest to investors. In that report, analysts expect Merck to post earnings of $2.12 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 51.43%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $15.32 billion, up 5.74% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $8.58 per share and a revenue of $64.04 billion, demonstrating changes of +468.21% and +6.53%, respectively, from the preceding year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Merck. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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.
The Zacks Rank system, spanning from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), boasts an impressive track record of outperformance, audited externally, with #1 ranked stocks yielding an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.24% lower. Merck is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, Merck currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 14.43. This expresses no noticeable deviation compared to the average Forward P/E of 14.43 of its industry.
It is also worth noting that MRK currently has a PEG ratio of 0.49. 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 1.71 at yesterday's closing price.
The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 171, this industry ranks in the bottom 33% of all industries, numbering over 250.
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.
Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.