Merck weighed own by charges, but drug sales rebound

Merck's second-quarter profit dove 49%, mainly due to a big charge for an acquisition and a higher tax rate, though sales of its vaccines and medicines used in hospitals rebounded from the effects of the pandemic.

Merck & Co. on Thursday reported second-quarter net income of $1.55 billion.

On a per-share basis, the Kenilworth, New Jersey-based company said it had profit of 61 cents. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were $1.31 per share.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.30 per share.

The pharmaceutical company posted revenue of $11.4 billion in the period.

Merck expects full-year earnings in the range of $5.47 to $5.57 per share, with revenue in the range of $46.4 billion to $47.4 billion.

Shares dipped about 1% before the opening bell.

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A portion of this story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on MRK at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MRK