Merck Ready For Larger Than $15 Billion Deals, Raises Annual Profit Outlook

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) stock traded in a volatile session on Thursday following its third-quarter earnings report and updated fiscal 2025 outlook.

The pharma giant reported adjusted earnings per share of $2.58, surpassing consensus estimates of $2.35, a jump from $1.57 reported a year ago.

Merck reported sales of $17.28 billion, a 4% increase year-over-year, and exceeded the analysts’ projections of $16.96 billion.

Also Read: Merck’s New Cancer Therapy Combo Shows Significant Edge Over Rivals In Renal Cancer

Segment And Drug Performance

The pharmaceutical segment recorded $15.61 billion in sales, up 4% year over year, driven by growth in oncology, cardiovascular, and diabetes, partially offset by declines in vaccines, virology, and immunology.

The Animal Health segment’s revenue of $1.62 billion increased 9% year-over-year, primarily driven by the performance of livestock products.

Keytruda, an immunotherapy for cancer, generated $8.14 billion in global sales, representing a 10% year-over-year increase, driven by continued strong demand from metastatic indications worldwide.

GARDASIL and GARDASIL 9, vaccines to prevent HPV-related diseases, generated $1.75 billion in sales, down 24% compared to last year. The company cited lower demand in China.

The diabetes franchise, led by JANUVIA and JANUMET, increased 29% to $624 million.

Newer products, including Winrevair sales, a therapy for pulmonary arterial hypertension (a rare heart-lung condition), saw sales jump by 141% to 360 million.

Guidance 

Merck raised its fiscal 2025 adjusted earnings guidance from $8.87-$8.97 per share to $8.93-$8.98 compared to the Wall Street estimate of $8.91.

The U.S. drug giant narrowed its fiscal 2025 sales outlook from $64.3 billion to $65.3 billion to $64.5 billion to $65 billion, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.66 billion.

M&A

A Merck executive on the company’s conference call stated that the company continues to focus on a potential deal size of $1 billion to $15 billion and is willing to go larger.

MRK Price Action: Merck & Co shares were up 0.07% at $86.64 at the time of publication on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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