Merck (MRK) Stock Moves -0.81%: What You Should Know

Merck (MRK) closed the most recent trading day at $76.25, moving -0.81% from the previous trading session. This move was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.51%. At the same time, the Dow lost 1.69%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.53%.

Heading into today, shares of the pharmaceutical company had lost 5.77% over the past month, outpacing the Medical sector's loss of 10.33% and the S&P 500's loss of 18.13% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from MRK as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be April 28, 2020. In that report, analysts expect MRK to post earnings of $1.41 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 15.57%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $11.96 billion, up 10.61% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $5.72 per share and revenue of $49.80 billion. These totals would mark changes of +10.21% and +6.32%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for MRK. 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. 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 has moved 0.02% 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 13.44 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 13.37.

Investors should also note that MRK has a PEG ratio of 1.96 right now. 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. Large Cap Pharmaceuticals stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.78 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 25, which puts it in the top 10% 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.

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

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