Merck & Co beats forecasts despite sales and profit falls
US pharma major Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) posting first-quarter 2015 financials, showing that revenues were $9.43 billion, down 8.1% from $10.26 billion a year earlier, but exceeding Wall Street forecasts for $8.98 billion.
Sales were hit by unfavorable currency-exchange rates which reduced these by 5%. Also impacting revenues by 9% was the sale of Merck’s consumer business to Germany’s Bayer. Merck’s shares gained 5.4% to $60.20 in pre-market trading after the figures were released.
First-quarter net income fell 44% to $958 million, or $0.33 per share, down from $1.71 billion, or $0.57 per share, a year earlier. Adjusted for one-time items, adjusted income was $2.43 billion, or $0.85 per share, down from $0.88, but also beating the estimates of analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research of $0.75 per share.
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