PFE vs. MRK, ABBV, LLY, BMY, JNJ, ZTS, NVO, AZN, NVS, and ABT
Should you be buying Pfizer stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Pfizer include Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK), AbbVie (ABBV), Eli Lilly and (LLY), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Zoetis (ZTS), Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO), AstraZeneca (AZN), Novartis (NVS), and Abbott Laboratories (ABT). These companies are all part of the "pharmaceutical preparations" industry.
Pfizer vs.
Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends, risk, institutional ownership and community ranking.
Pfizer received 543 more outperform votes than Merck & Co., Inc. when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.39% of users gave Pfizer an outperform vote while only 67.06% of users gave Merck & Co., Inc. an outperform vote.
67.9% of Pfizer shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.3% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Pfizer shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Pfizer has a beta of 0.69, suggesting that its stock price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Merck & Co., Inc. has a beta of 0.38, suggesting that its stock price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Pfizer has a net margin of 29.81% compared to Merck & Co., Inc.'s net margin of 25.88%. Merck & Co., Inc.'s return on equity of 46.57% beat Pfizer's return on equity.
In the previous week, Pfizer had 2 more articles in the media than Merck & Co., Inc.. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for Pfizer and 10 mentions for Merck & Co., Inc.. Merck & Co., Inc.'s average media sentiment score of 0.82 beat Pfizer's score of 0.29 indicating that Merck & Co., Inc. is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Pfizer presently has a consensus price target of $56.47, indicating a potential upside of 12.64%. Merck & Co., Inc. has a consensus price target of $106.00, indicating a potential downside of 3.74%. Given Pfizer's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Pfizer is more favorable than Merck & Co., Inc..
Pfizer pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Merck & Co., Inc. pays an annual dividend of $2.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Pfizer pays out 30.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Merck & Co., Inc. pays out 45.9% 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. Pfizer is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Pfizer has higher revenue and earnings than Merck & Co., Inc.. Pfizer 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
Pfizer beats Merck & Co., Inc. on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding PFE and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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.
