Merck’s second-quarter profit dove 49%, mainly due to a big charge for an acquisition and a higher tax rate, though sales of its vaccines and medicines used in hospitals rebounded from the effects of the pandemic
By LINDA A. JOHNSON AP Medical Writer
July 29, 2021, 11:09 AM
• 1 min read
Share to FacebookShare to TwitterEmail this articleMerck’s second-quarter profit dove 49%, mainly due to a big charge for an acquisition and a higher tax rate, though sales of its vaccines and medicines used in hospitals rebounded from the effects of the pandemic.
Merck & Co. on Thursday reported second-quarter net income of $1.55 billion.
On a per-share basis, the Kenilworth, New Jersey-based company said it had profit of 61 cents. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were $1.31 per share.
The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.30 per share.
The pharmaceutical company posted revenue of $11.4 billion in the period.
Merck expects full-year earnings in the range of $5.47 to $5.57 per share, with revenue in the range of $46.4 billion to $47.4 billion.
Shares dipped about 1% before the opening bell.
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A portion of this story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on MRK at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MRK
