MRK vs. ABBV, JNJ, PFE, BMY, LLY, AZN, NVS, ABT, SNY, and VRTX
Should you be buying Merck & Co., Inc. stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Merck & Co., Inc. include AbbVie (ABBV), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Pfizer (PFE), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Eli Lilly and Company (LLY), AstraZeneca (AZN), Novartis (NVS), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Sanofi (SNY), and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX). These companies are all part of the "pharmaceutical preparations" industry.
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) and AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, community ranking, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, media sentiment and valuation.
AbbVie has a net margin of 8.95% compared to Merck & Co., Inc.'s net margin of 3.76%. AbbVie's return on equity of 162.28% beat Merck & Co., Inc.'s return on equity.
AbbVie received 332 more outperform votes than Merck & Co., Inc. when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 73.06% of users gave AbbVie an outperform vote while only 66.97% of users gave Merck & Co., Inc. an outperform vote.
Merck & Co., Inc. has a beta of 0.38, suggesting that its stock price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AbbVie has a beta of 0.58, suggesting that its stock price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500.
AbbVie has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Merck & Co., Inc.. AbbVie is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Merck & Co., Inc., indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, AbbVie had 7 more articles in the media than Merck & Co., Inc.. MarketBeat recorded 47 mentions for AbbVie and 40 mentions for Merck & Co., Inc.. Merck & Co., Inc.'s average media sentiment score of 0.88 beat AbbVie's score of 0.64 indicating that Merck & Co., Inc. is being referred to more favorably in the media.
76.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.2% of AbbVie shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of AbbVie shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Merck & Co., Inc. pays an annual dividend of $3.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. AbbVie pays an annual dividend of $6.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. Merck & Co., Inc. pays out 342.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. AbbVie pays out 227.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. AbbVie is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Merck & Co., Inc. presently has a consensus price target of $131.33, suggesting a potential upside of 0.11%. AbbVie has a consensus price target of $177.43, suggesting a potential upside of 11.16%. Given AbbVie's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe AbbVie is more favorable than Merck & Co., Inc..
Summary
AbbVie beats Merck & Co., Inc. on 15 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding MRK and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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