What to Watch When Merck and Pfizer Report Tuesday Morning

By Chris Lange Published Apr 27, 12:13PM EDT

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What to Watch When Merck and Pfizer Report Tuesday Morning — © MJ_Prototype / Getty Images

Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK | MRK Price Prediction) and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) are set to report their most recent quarterly results before the opening bell Tuesday. Both stocks have outperformed the Dow Jones industrials year to date, and there could be more upside from Tuesday morning’s reports.

These two pure-play pharmaceutical stocks are the most highly followed in their industry. Pfizer is again one of the most shorted of all Dow stocks, but its share performance has been bad enough that its dividend yield is roughly 4.0%. Merck’s shares come with close to a 3.0% dividend yield, based on the current share price.

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Merck

Analysts on average expect to see $1.34 in earnings per share (EPS) and $11.46 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had $1.22 in EPS and $10.82 billion in revenue.

During the previous quarter, worldwide sales increased by 8%, or 9% excluding foreign exchange. This was largely driven by Keytruda sales increasing 46% year over year to $3.11 billion. Also, the increase was driven by growth in oncology, partially offset by the ongoing impacts of the loss of market exclusivity for several products.

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Animal Health sales totaled $1.1 billion for the fourth quarter of 2019, an increase of 8% compared with the same quarter of 2018. Excluding the unfavorable effect from foreign exchange, Animal Health sales grew 10%. Growth for the quarter was mainly driven by livestock products due to the Antelliq acquisition.

Merck stock traded at $83.37 on Monday, in a 52-week range of $65.25 to $92.64. The consensus price target is $95.72.

Pfizer

The consensus forecast calls for $0.73 in EPS and $11.89 billion in revenue. In the same period of last year, the company said it had $0.85 in EPS and revenue of $12.99 billion.

Earlier this month, Pfizer’s collaboration with BioNTech to fight against COVID-19 took a step forward. The goal of the joint effort is rapid advancement of multiple COVID-19 vaccine candidates into human clinical testing based on BioNTech’s proprietary mRNA vaccine platforms, with the objective of ensuring rapid worldwide access to the vaccine, if approved.

The two companies plan to conduct joint clinical trials for the vaccine candidates initially in the United States and Europe across multiple sites. BioNTech and Pfizer intend to initiate the first clinical trials as early as the end of April 2020, assuming regulatory clearance.

In its prior quarter, Biopharma revenues totaled $10.5 billion, up 9% operationally, primarily driven by Eliquis, Vyndaqel/Vyndamax, Ibrance, Inlyta and Prevenar.

At the same time, Upjohn revenues were down 32% on an operational basis to $2.2 billion. This move was driven primarily by the expected significant volume declines for Lyrica in the United States due to multisource generic competition that began in July 2019.

Pfizer was trading at $38.11, in a 52-week range of $27.88 to $44.56. The consensus target is $41.14.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.