MRK vs. JNJ, ABBV, 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 Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), AbbVie (ABBV), 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.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, institutional ownership, dividends and community ranking.
Johnson & Johnson has higher revenue and earnings than Merck & Co., Inc.. Johnson & Johnson 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.
Johnson & Johnson pays an annual dividend of $4.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Merck & Co., Inc. pays an annual dividend of $3.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Johnson & Johnson pays out 29.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. 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. Johnson & Johnson has increased its dividend for 63 consecutive years and Merck & Co., Inc. has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years. Johnson & Johnson is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
In the previous week, Johnson & Johnson had 14 more articles in the media than Merck & Co., Inc.. MarketBeat recorded 41 mentions for Johnson & Johnson and 27 mentions for Merck & Co., Inc.. Johnson & Johnson's average media sentiment score of 0.84 beat Merck & Co., Inc.'s score of 0.61 indicating that Merck & Co., Inc. is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Johnson & Johnson has a beta of 0.55, indicating that its share price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Merck & Co., Inc. has a beta of 0.39, indicating that its share price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Johnson & Johnson has a net margin of 45.26% compared to Johnson & Johnson's net margin of 3.76%. Merck & Co., Inc.'s return on equity of 36.70% beat Johnson & Johnson's return on equity.
69.6% of Johnson & Johnson shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Johnson & Johnson shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Johnson & Johnson received 117 more outperform votes than Merck & Co., Inc. when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 66.97% of users gave Merck & Co., Inc. an outperform vote while only 64.95% of users gave Johnson & Johnson an outperform vote.
Johnson & Johnson currently has a consensus target price of $175.86, suggesting a potential upside of 13.69%. Merck & Co., Inc. has a consensus target price of $131.33, suggesting a potential upside of 0.11%. Given Merck & Co., Inc.'s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Johnson & Johnson is more favorable than Merck & Co., Inc..
Summary
Johnson & Johnson beats Merck & Co., Inc. on 14 of the 21 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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