Merck Earnings Fall Short of Expectations As Sales Weakened By Widespread Infections

COVID-19 infections weighed on Merck & Co Inc's MRK Q1 earnings, with several people avoiding visits to hospitals or even the doctor early in the first quarter.
The company reported Q1 EPS of $1.40, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $1.63 and was down around 7% Y/Y.
It logged quarterly sales of $12.08 billion, beneath analyst consensus of $12.66 billion. The pharmaceutical company said drug sales were strong, the effect of the pandemic pulled profits down by about 1%.
Merck estimated that the COVID-19 pandemic brought a negative impact on its pharmaceutical revenue of $600 million. The segment's revenue was $10.68 billion, roughly in line with its result in last year's first quarter.
In addition to the pandemic's negative impact, Merck said its revenue was also negatively affected by the loss of market exclusivity for some products.
Sales of Keytruda grew 19% year over year, but revenue from its Gardasil and Pneumovax vaccines declined by 16% and 33%, respectively.
Animal-health sales grew by 17% to $1.42 billion, reflecting higher global demand for parasiticides and animal vaccines.
Guidance: Merck reaffirmed its full-year earnings in the range of $6.48 to $6.68 per share, with revenue in the range of $51.8 billion to $53.8 billion.
However, the company expects that the Organon spinoff will occur on June 2. The financial estimates will be updated when the spinoff is complete.
Price Action: MRK shares are down 2.08% at $75.50 in the premarket session on the last check Thursday.

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