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Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK) Competitors

Merck & Co., Inc. logo
$84.82 +0.71 (+0.84%)
Closing price 07/25/2025 03:59 PM Eastern
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$84.92 +0.11 (+0.12%)
As of 07/25/2025 07:57 PM Eastern
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MRK vs. AMGN, CORT, GILD, MRNA, VRTX, ABBV, BMY, JNJ, LLY, and PFE

Should you be buying Merck & Co., Inc. stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Merck & Co., Inc. include Amgen (AMGN), Corcept Therapeutics (CORT), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Moderna (MRNA), Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX), AbbVie (ABBV), Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Eli Lilly and Company (LLY), and Pfizer (PFE). These companies are all part of the "medical" sector.

Merck & Co., Inc. vs. Its Competitors

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) and Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) 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, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and institutional ownership.

Merck & Co., Inc. has higher revenue and earnings than Amgen. Merck & Co., Inc. is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Amgen, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Merck & Co., Inc.$64.17B3.32$17.12B$6.8712.35
Amgen$33.42B4.93$4.09B$10.9627.97

Merck & Co., Inc. has a net margin of 27.27% compared to Amgen's net margin of 17.39%. Amgen's return on equity of 176.11% beat Merck & Co., Inc.'s return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Merck & Co., Inc.27.27% 43.23% 17.11%
Amgen 17.39%176.11%12.39%

In the previous week, Merck & Co., Inc. had 16 more articles in the media than Amgen. MarketBeat recorded 73 mentions for Merck & Co., Inc. and 57 mentions for Amgen. Amgen's average media sentiment score of 1.25 beat Merck & Co., Inc.'s score of 1.22 indicating that Amgen is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
Merck & Co., Inc.
55 Very Positive mention(s)
6 Positive mention(s)
8 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
Amgen
48 Very Positive mention(s)
3 Positive mention(s)
2 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

Merck & Co., Inc. has a beta of 0.39, suggesting that its stock price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Amgen has a beta of 0.49, suggesting that its stock price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Merck & Co., Inc. pays an annual dividend of $3.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Amgen pays an annual dividend of $9.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Merck & Co., Inc. pays out 47.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Amgen pays out 86.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Merck & Co., Inc. has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years and Amgen has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years. Merck & Co., Inc. is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Merck & Co., Inc. currently has a consensus price target of $108.69, suggesting a potential upside of 28.14%. Amgen has a consensus price target of $307.27, suggesting a potential upside of 0.23%. Given Merck & Co., Inc.'s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Merck & Co., Inc. is more favorable than Amgen.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Merck & Co., Inc.
1 Sell rating(s)
12 Hold rating(s)
6 Buy rating(s)
2 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.43
Amgen
2 Sell rating(s)
12 Hold rating(s)
8 Buy rating(s)
1 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.35

76.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.5% of Amgen shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Amgen shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Merck & Co., Inc. beats Amgen on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

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.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

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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MRK vs. The Competition

MetricMerck & Co., Inc.Large Cap Pharma IndustryMedical SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$211.20B$259.04B$5.70B$21.11B
Dividend Yield3.85%2.80%4.69%3.60%
P/E Ratio12.3527.9628.1028.44
Price / Sales3.324.51428.7158.68
Price / Cash8.8914.1736.2222.92
Price / Book4.6317.998.664.69
Net Income$17.12B$8.49B$3.25B$995.51M
7 Day Performance6.06%3.65%4.22%1.65%
1 Month Performance7.45%3.11%10.51%4.54%
1 Year Performance-32.31%-6.18%34.40%9.99%

Merck & Co., Inc. Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
MRK
Merck & Co., Inc.
4.997 of 5 stars
$84.82
+0.8%
$108.69
+28.1%
-32.6%$211.20B$64.17B12.3575,000Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
Dividend Announcement
AMGN
Amgen
4.3951 of 5 stars
$297.18
-0.6%
$307.82
+3.6%
-8.3%$159.84B$33.42B27.1228,000Positive News
Analyst Forecast
CORT
Corcept Therapeutics
4.8282 of 5 stars
$73.13
+0.4%
$138.25
+89.1%
+95.8%$7.81B$675.04M63.49300
GILD
Gilead Sciences
4.8848 of 5 stars
$108.75
-1.0%
$111.38
+2.4%
+51.9%$135.55B$28.75B22.9417,600Trending News
Analyst Upgrade
MRNA
Moderna
4.249 of 5 stars
$32.40
+1.0%
$46.61
+43.9%
-71.6%$12.57B$3.24B-3.725,800Upcoming Earnings
Analyst Forecast
VRTX
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
4.3205 of 5 stars
$467.95
-0.3%
$511.71
+9.4%
-4.6%$120.30B$11.10B-119.516,100Positive News
Analyst Revision
ABBV
AbbVie
4.8456 of 5 stars
$190.32
-0.1%
$211.29
+11.0%
+4.4%$336.33B$56.33B81.0255,000Trending News
Upcoming Earnings
Analyst Revision
BMY
Bristol Myers Squibb
4.658 of 5 stars
$48.10
+2.0%
$57.69
+19.9%
+7.0%$97.86B$48.30B18.0134,100Trending News
Upcoming Earnings
JNJ
Johnson & Johnson
4.8396 of 5 stars
$162.93
-1.1%
$173.50
+6.5%
+5.4%$391.73B$88.82B18.11138,100Trending News
Analyst Upgrade
LLY
Eli Lilly and Company
4.9051 of 5 stars
$785.04
-0.6%
$1,012.56
+29.0%
-1.3%$744.44B$45.04B63.9147,000Trending News
PFE
Pfizer
4.9819 of 5 stars
$24.69
+0.3%
$28.55
+15.7%
-18.0%$140.34B$62.46B17.8981,000Trending News
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This page (NYSE:MRK) was last updated on 7/26/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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