The most recent trading session ended with Merck (MRK) standing at $97.45, reflecting a -0.5% shift from the previouse trading day's closing. The stock's performance was behind the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.92%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.31%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 2.03%.
Heading into today, shares of the pharmaceutical company had lost 0.44% over the past month, lagging the Medical sector's gain of 3.83% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.81% in that time.
The upcoming earnings release of Merck will be of great interest to investors. The company's earnings report is expected on February 4, 2025. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $1.69, signifying a 5533.33% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $15.57 billion, up 6.43% from the year-ago period.
Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Merck. 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.
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. Over the past month, there's been a 3.25% fall in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Merck is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.
From a valuation perspective, Merck is currently exchanging hands at a Forward P/E ratio of 10.58. This expresses a discount compared to the average Forward P/E of 13.04 of its industry.
We can additionally observe that MRK currently boasts a PEG ratio of 1.18. 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. MRK's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.37 as of yesterday's close.
The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 195, positioning it in the bottom 23% 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.
Ensure to harness Zacks.com to stay updated with all these stock-shifting metrics, among others, in the next trading sessions.
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