MRK vs. LLY, JNJ, ABBV, PFE, BMY, ZTS, RPRX, CORT, JAZZ, and PRGO
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), Corcept Therapeutics (CORT), Jazz Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ), and Perrigo (PRGO). These companies are all part of the "pharmaceuticals" industry.
Merck & Co., Inc. vs.
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) and Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, community ranking, earnings, risk, media sentiment, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations and valuation.
Merck & Co., Inc. presently has a consensus price target of $109.19, indicating a potential upside of 34.27%. Eli Lilly and Company has a consensus price target of $1,011.37, indicating a potential upside of 25.21%. Given Merck & Co., Inc.'s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly 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 endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Eli Lilly and Company received 234 more outperform votes than Merck & Co., Inc. when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.65% of users gave Eli Lilly and Company an outperform vote while only 66.71% 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, Eli Lilly and Company has a beta of 0.4, suggesting that its stock price is 60% 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 4.0%. Eli Lilly and Company pays an annual dividend of $6.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Merck & Co., Inc. pays out 47.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Eli Lilly and Company pays out 48.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Merck & Co., Inc. has raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years and Eli Lilly and Company has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years. Merck & Co., Inc. is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Merck & Co., Inc. has higher revenue and earnings than Eli Lilly and Company. Merck & Co., Inc. is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Eli Lilly and Company, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Merck & Co., Inc. has a net margin of 26.67% compared to Eli Lilly and Company's net margin of 23.51%. Eli Lilly and Company's return on equity of 85.24% beat Merck & Co., Inc.'s return on equity.
In the previous week, Eli Lilly and Company had 32 more articles in the media than Merck & Co., Inc.. MarketBeat recorded 110 mentions for Eli Lilly and Company and 78 mentions for Merck & Co., Inc.. Merck & Co., Inc.'s average media sentiment score of 1.34 beat Eli Lilly and Company's score of 1.19 indicating that Merck & Co., Inc. is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Summary
Eli Lilly and Company beats Merck & Co., Inc. on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
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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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This page (NYSE:MRK) was last updated on 6/11/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
