Shares of Merck slipped Monday before markets opened and after another analyst lowered his rating on the drug developer, which recently announced job cuts and is dealing with the expiration of patents protecting key products.
Bernstein analyst Dr. Tim Anderson said in a Monday research note that Merck appears to have only average prospects for long-term revenue and earnings per share growth. He lowered his rating on the stock to “Market-perform” from “Outperform.”
“Merck is still a quality ‘blue chip’ company in many regards, but one that does not warrant an Outperform rating at present, in our view,” Bernstein wrote.
A representative for Merck, the world’s third-largest drugmaker, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday morning from The Associated Press.
Merck, like many other drugmakers, is being squeezed by generic competition that slashes revenue and by pressure from both private and government health programs pushing for lower prices. Last year, its top seller, the asthma and allergy treatment Singulair, got U.S. generic competition. This year, plunging sales for the migraine drug Maxalt and the baldness treatment Propecia have hurt.
Earlier this month, the Whitehouse Station, N.J., company said it planned to cut another 8,500 jobs, in addition to 7,500 cuts it had previously announced but hadn’t carried out.
Anderson said that announcement did little to bolster Merck’s investment case.
“It is, of course, good to slim down, but it simultaneously supports the notion that (Merck) is under-performing on its execution versus prior plan,” Anderson wrote.
Last week, Jefferies analyst Jeffrey Holford also lowered his rating on Merck shares to “Hold” from “Buy.” He said the cost cutting was more limited than expected.
Merck shares lost 44 cents to $46.85 Monday in pre-market trading. The stock closed Friday up more than 15 percent so far this year, and is still closer the top end of its 52-week range of $40.02 to $50.16.
