The Top 2 Dow Stocks Reporting on Thursday

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 12, 3:16PM EST · Published Feb 1, 12:05PM EST

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The Top 2 Dow Stocks Reporting on Thursday — © Thinkstock

[cnxvideo id=”655353″ placement=”ros”]24/7 Wall St. has put together a preview of the two Dow stocks scheduled to report their quarterly results on Thursday: Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) and Visa Inc. (NYSE: V). We have seen the markets hit new highs so far in 2017, but they seem to be in the midst of a pullback at the moment as the Trump administration is kicking into gear.

We included the consensus earnings estimates from Thomson Reuters and the stock price and trading history, as well as added some additional color on each.

Merck is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter earnings report before the markets open on Thursday. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters call for $0.89 in earnings per share (EPS) and $10.22 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $0.93 and $10.21 billion in revenue.

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Comments from President Donald Trump regarding high U.S. drug prices were initially considered to be a headwind for Merck and other pharmaceutical houses at the beginning of the year. But after comments this week regarding speeding up the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process, the health care sector saw a nice gain. At the beginning of January, the U.S. Senate also defeated an amendment to the budget bill that would have allowed a review federal policy preventing re-importation of prescription drugs into the United States.

Shares of Merck were last seen at $61.80, with a consensus analyst price target of $68.21 and a 52-week trading range of $47.97 to $65.46.

Visa is set to report its fiscal first-quarter financial results after the markets close on Thursday. Analysts are looking for $0.78 in EPS and revenue of $4.29 billion. In the same period of last year, Visa posted EPS of $0.69 and $3.56 billion in revenue.

This company has a few new avenues open for it this year. Just this past summer, Visa initiated a deal with famed online payment provider PayPal. Together the companies will partner up, giving Visa customers a network online network for digital payments while also bringing more business to PayPal. But keep in mind they will face some stiff competition breaking into this market; Visa and PayPal are up against the likes of Google Wallet and Apple Pay.

PayPal had a similar deal with Mastercard, which reported its results earlier this week. Unfortunately Mastercard earnings did not live up to the hype.

Visa shares were trading at $82.31 on Wednesday. The 52-week range is $66.12 to $84.27, and the consensus price target is $95.45.

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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.