MRK vs. JNJ, ABBV, PFE, BMY, LLY, AZN, NVS, ABT, SNY, and VRTX
Should you be buying Merck & Co., Inc. stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Merck & Co., Inc. include Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), AbbVie (ABBV), Pfizer (PFE), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Eli Lilly and Company (LLY), AstraZeneca (AZN), Novartis (NVS), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Sanofi (SNY), and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX). These companies are all part of the "pharmaceutical preparations" industry.
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) 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, community ranking, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and institutional ownership.
Johnson & Johnson received 117 more outperform votes than Merck & Co., Inc. when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 66.97% of users gave Merck & Co., Inc. an outperform vote while only 64.95% of users gave Johnson & Johnson an outperform vote.
Merck & Co., Inc. currently has a consensus target price of $131.33, indicating a potential upside of 0.34%. Johnson & Johnson has a consensus target price of $175.86, indicating a potential upside of 13.99%. Given Johnson & Johnson's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Johnson & Johnson is more favorable than Merck & Co., Inc..
Johnson & Johnson has higher revenue and earnings than Merck & Co., Inc.. Johnson & Johnson 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 0.39, suggesting that its stock price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Johnson & Johnson has a beta of 0.55, suggesting that its stock price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, Johnson & Johnson had 26 more articles in the media than Merck & Co., Inc.. MarketBeat recorded 46 mentions for Johnson & Johnson and 20 mentions for Merck & Co., Inc.. Merck & Co., Inc.'s average media sentiment score of 0.69 beat Johnson & Johnson's score of 0.64 indicating that Merck & Co., Inc. is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Johnson & Johnson has a net margin of 45.26% compared to Merck & Co., Inc.'s net margin of 3.76%. Johnson & Johnson's return on equity of 36.70% beat Merck & Co., Inc.'s return on equity.
76.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.6% of Johnson & Johnson shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Merck & Co., Inc. shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Johnson & Johnson shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Merck & Co., Inc. pays an annual dividend of $3.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Johnson & Johnson pays an annual dividend of $4.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. 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. Johnson & Johnson pays out 29.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Johnson & Johnson is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Summary
Johnson & Johnson beats Merck & Co., Inc. on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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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.
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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