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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 $76.18, moving -0.14% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.03%.

Coming into today, shares of the pharmaceutical company had lost 0.16% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector gained 2.3%, while the S&P 500 gained 3.02%.

MRK will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.52, down 12.64% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $12.43 billion, down 0.94% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $5.54 per share and revenue of $47.03 billion, which would represent changes of -6.73% and -2.02%, 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.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. MRK currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, MRK currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 13.77. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 14.7, which means MRK is trading at a discount to the group.

Meanwhile, MRK's PEG ratio is currently 2.23. 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. Large Cap Pharmaceuticals stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.2 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 121, which puts it in the top 48% 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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