• Home
  • Mail
  • Flickr
  • Tumblr
  • News
  • Sports
  • Finance
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Answers
  • Groups
  • More
Yahoo
    • Skip to Navigation
    • Skip to Main Content
    • Skip to Related Content
    Watch Live:

    White House holds daily press briefing

    Merck quarterly sales just miss Wall St. estimate

    Reuters•February 5, 2014

    (Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc reported quarterly sales that were slightly lower than expected, hurt by competition from cheaper generic medicines, and predicted full-year earnings at the lower end of analysts' expectations.

    The second-biggest U.S. drugmaker said on Wednesday it earned $781 million (479 million pounds), or 26 cents per share, in the fourth quarter. That compared with $908 million, or 30 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.

    Revenue fell 4 percent to $11.32 billion. Wall Street was expecting $11.36 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

    Merck predicted full-year earnings, excluding special items, of $3.35 to $3.53 per share. The average analyst estimate was $3.48 per share.

    Separately, Merck said it plans to test its closely followed immuno-oncology drug MK-3475 in combination with medicines being developed by rival drugmakers Pfizer Inc , Amgen Inc , Incyte Corp .

    (Reporting by Ransdell Pierson; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Bernadette Baum)