MRK vs. LLY, JNJ, ABBV, PFE, BMY, ZTS, RPRX, JAZZ, PRGO, and CORT
Should you be buying Merck & Co., Inc. stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Merck & Co., Inc. include Eli Lilly and Company (LLY), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), AbbVie (ABBV), Pfizer (PFE), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Zoetis (ZTS), Royalty Pharma (RPRX), Jazz Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ), Perrigo (PRGO), and Corcept Therapeutics (CORT). These companies are all part of the "pharmaceuticals" industry.
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) and Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, risk, valuation, profitability, community ranking, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and institutional ownership.
Merck & Co., Inc. currently has a consensus target price of $133.00, indicating a potential upside of 1.78%. Eli Lilly and Company has a consensus target price of $787.53, indicating a potential downside of 7.35%. Given Merck & Co., Inc.'s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Merck & Co., Inc. is more favorable than Eli Lilly and Company.
76.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.5% of Eli Lilly and Company shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Eli Lilly and Company shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Merck & Co., Inc. has a beta of 0.39, suggesting that its stock price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Eli Lilly and Company has a beta of 0.36, suggesting that its stock price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Eli Lilly and Company received 205 more outperform votes than Merck & Co., Inc. when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.09% of users gave Eli Lilly and Company an outperform vote while only 67.01% of users gave Merck & Co., Inc. an outperform vote.
Eli Lilly and Company has a net margin of 17.08% compared to Merck & Co., Inc.'s net margin of 3.76%. Eli Lilly and Company's return on equity of 56.98% beat Merck & Co., Inc.'s return on equity.
Merck & Co., Inc. pays an annual dividend of $3.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Eli Lilly and Company pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. 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. Eli Lilly and Company pays out 76.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.
In the previous week, Eli Lilly and Company had 37 more articles in the media than Merck & Co., Inc.. MarketBeat recorded 57 mentions for Eli Lilly and Company and 20 mentions for Merck & Co., Inc.. Merck & Co., Inc.'s average media sentiment score of 0.89 beat Eli Lilly and Company's score of 0.60 indicating that Merck & Co., Inc. is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Eli Lilly and Company has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Merck & Co., Inc.. Eli Lilly and Company 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.
Summary
Eli Lilly and Company 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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