Goldman Sachs analyst Jami Rubin upgraded Merck to Buy from Neutral and added the shares to her firm's Conviction List. Rubin also upped her price target for the shares to $73 from $63. Merck closed Friday up 20c to $58.83. The analyst increased her estimates for Keytruda sales by $2B in 2021 and $4B in 2025. The narrative for Merck is "quickly changing with the success of Keytruda, driving a significant shift in product mix from a large primary care evolving into a specialty biopharma," Rubin tells investors in a research note. The analyst now sees "significant" margin upside from product mix shift with higher Keytruda sales than previously modeled. She believes Merck's operating margins could go from 32.5% in 2017 to 40% by 2025, with an inflection point beginning in the second half of 2018.

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FY24 consensus $8.56. Raises FY24 revenue view to $63.1B-$64.3B from $62.7B-$64.2B, consensus $63.83B.

Reports Q1 revenue $15.8B, consensus $15.2B. "Merck has begun 2024 with continuing momentum in our business. We are harnessing the power of innovation to advance our deep pipeline and are maximizing the impact of our broad commercial portfolio for the benefit of patients," said Robert Davis, chairman and chief executive officer, Merck. "We drove strong growth across key therapeutic areas, executed strategic business development, and in the U.S., we are now launching WINREVAIR, a significant new product in the cardiometabolic space for adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension, a progressive and debilitating disease. We have important opportunities ahead of us across all areas of our business, and we are highly focused on realizing them."

Notable companies reporting before tomorrow's open, with earnings consensus, include Merck (MRK), consensus $1.87... Caterpillar (CAT), consensus $5.14... Comcast (CMSCA), consensus 99c... Honeywell (HON), consensus $2.17... Bristol-Myers (BMY), consensus ($4.44)... Altria (MO), consensus $1.15... Keurig Dr. Pepper (KDP), consensus 35c... GE Vernova (GEV), consensus (37c)... Royal Caribbean (RCL), consensus $1.33... Tractor Supply (TSCO), consensus $1.72... Mobileye (MBLY), consensus (6c)... Textron (TXT), consensus $1.23... LabCorp (LH), consensus $3.48... Southwest Airlines (LUV), consensus (34c)... American Airlines (AAL), consensus (29c)... Harley-Davidson (HOG), consensus $1.51.