ZTS vs. MRK, ABBV, PFE, BMY, RPRX, JAZZ, PRGO, CORT, SUPN, and PCRX
Should you be buying Zoetis stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Zoetis include Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK), AbbVie (ABBV), Pfizer (PFE), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Royalty Pharma (RPRX), Jazz Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ), Perrigo (PRGO), Corcept Therapeutics (CORT), Supernus Pharmaceuticals (SUPN), and Pacira BioSciences (PCRX). These companies are all part of the "pharmaceuticals" industry.
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) and Zoetis (NYSE:ZTS) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, dividends, earnings, community ranking and risk.
Zoetis has a net margin of 27.38% compared to Zoetis' net margin of 3.76%. Merck & Co., Inc.'s return on equity of 50.34% beat Zoetis' return on equity.
Merck & Co., Inc. pays an annual dividend of $3.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Zoetis pays an annual dividend of $1.73 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. 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. Zoetis pays out 33.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Merck & Co., Inc. has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years and Zoetis has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years.
Zoetis has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Merck & Co., Inc.. Zoetis 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.
Merck & Co., Inc. has a beta of 0.38, meaning that its stock price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Zoetis has a beta of 0.86, meaning that its stock price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.
76.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.8% of Zoetis shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Zoetis shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Merck & Co., Inc. received 71 more outperform votes than Zoetis when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 77.84% of users gave Zoetis an outperform vote while only 66.99% of users gave Merck & Co., Inc. an outperform vote.
Merck & Co., Inc. currently has a consensus target price of $135.36, indicating a potential upside of 8.03%. Zoetis has a consensus target price of $212.67, indicating a potential upside of 18.25%. Given Merck & Co., Inc.'s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Zoetis is more favorable than Merck & Co., Inc..
In the previous week, Merck & Co., Inc. had 6 more articles in the media than Zoetis. MarketBeat recorded 18 mentions for Merck & Co., Inc. and 12 mentions for Zoetis. Merck & Co., Inc.'s average media sentiment score of 0.78 beat Zoetis' score of 0.67 indicating that Zoetis is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Summary
Zoetis beats Merck & Co., Inc. on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ZTS 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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