Analysts have gotten more bullish on Merck stock in the past few months. Of 26 brokerages covering the company, 18 now have a Buy or Strong Buy rating and the rest have a Hold rating. At a share price of around $106.00, the implied upside on the stock is 13.2% at a consensus 12-month price target of $120.00. At the high target of $136.00, upside potential rises to 28.3%.
For the fourth quarter, Merck is expected to report sales of $13.66 billion, down 8.7% sequentially and up 1% year over year. Adjusted EPS is expected to reach $1.54, down 17% sequentially and down 14.4% year over year. For the 2022 fiscal year, EPS is forecast at $7.39, an increase of 22.8% year over year, on sales of $59.13 billion, a jump of 21.4%.
Merck stock trades at 14.3 times expected 2022 EPS, 14.4 times estimated 2023 earnings of $7.38 and 2.1 times estimated 2024 earnings of $8.75 per share. The stock’s 52-week range is $72.88 to $115.49, and the company pays an annual dividend of $2.92 (yield of 2.75%). Total return over the past 12 months was 35.35%.
Sirius XM
Shares of satellite radio streaming service Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) have dropped about 5.2% over the past 12 months. What drives Sirius XM’s performance is self-paying consumers who received a trial period with their new car purchase and sign up to continue paying. Consumer demand for new cars has slowed and that has taken a slice out of Sirius XM’s self-pay subscriber growth. The worse news is that new car sales could fall even further this ear. Sirius XM reports quarter results first thing Thursday morning.
Of 16 brokerages covering the stock, seven have a Buy or Strong Buy rating and another five rate the shares a Hold. At a price of around $5.90 per share, the potential upside based on a median price target of $6.90 is about 17%. At the high price target of $8.25, the upside potential is 39.8%.
The consensus estimate calls for fourth-quarter revenue of $2.31 billion, up 1.5% sequentially and by 1.3% year over year. Adjusted EPS are pegged at $0.07, flat sequentially and down a penny year over year. For the full 2022 fiscal year, Sirius XM is expected to report EPS of $0.29, down about 13.4%, on revenue of $9.03 billion, up 3.8%.
Sirius XM’s stock trades at 20.1 times expected 2022 EPS, 16.7 times estimated 2023 earnings of $0.35 and 14.2 times estimated 2024 earnings of $0.41. The stock’s 52-week range is $5.69 to $6.88, and the current annual dividend is about $0.10 (yield of 1.64%). Total shareholder return for the past 12 months was 0.3%.
Originally published at 24/7 Wall St.
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