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Merck (MRK) Stock Moves -0.04%: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Merck (MRK - Free Report) closed at $76.40, marking a -0.04% move from the previous day. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.41%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the pharmaceutical company had lost 0.49% over the past month. This has was narrower than the Medical sector's loss of 3.28% and lagged the S&P 500's gain of 5.07% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from MRK as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be April 29, 2021. On that day, MRK is projected to report earnings of $1.64 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 9.33%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $12.85 billion, up 6.58% from the year-ago period.

MRK's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $6.56 per share and revenue of $52.07 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +10.44% and +8.49%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for MRK should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.04% higher. MRK is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, MRK currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 11.65. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 13.54, which means MRK is trading at a discount to the group.

We can also see that MRK currently has a PEG ratio of 1.92. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. Large Cap Pharmaceuticals stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.87 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 240, putting it in the bottom 6% 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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