Big pharmas Merck (MRK) and Pfizer (PFE) modestly beat Q2 estimates early Tuesday, but their guidance remained cautious. Merck stock was up more than 1%, while Pfizer stock was up a fraction in early trading on the stock market today. Merck’s Q2 earnings totaled 85 cents a share, up a penny from the year-earlier quarter and beating analysts’ consensus by 4 cents. Sales shrank 1% to $10.9 billion due to patent losses but beat the Street’s
Big pharma Pfizer (PFE) got a downgrade ahead of its Q2 earnings report scheduled for Tuesday, a day that will also feature reports from fellow big pharma Merck (MRK) as well as big biotech Amgen (AMGN). Analysts on average expect Pfizer earnings of 57 cents a share, up a penny from the year-earlier quarter, with sales dropping 3.9% to $12.47 billion due to patent expirations. In his downgrade note Monday, BMO Capital Markets analyst Alex Arfaei
AstraZeneca on Monday rejected Pfizer’s “final proposal” buyout offer of $117 billion. Shares of the British drug giant dived as investors seemed to lose hope that the merger of titans would ever take place. Pfizer (PFE) first revealed on April 28 that AstraZeneca (AZN) had rejected a proposal early this year, and a few days later made a higher bid of 50 British pounds per share, or about $106 billion. AstraZeneca turned Pfizer down