Hello, Thanks for signing up for MarketBeat Daily Ratings—we’re excited to have you on board. Every weekday, you’ll get a curated summary of new “Buy” and “Sell” ratings from Wall Street’s top-rated analysts, the latest stock news, and bonus investing content—all delivered straight to your inbox. You’re just two quick steps away from completing your sign-up: 1. Make sure our emails go to your inbox Gmail users:
Mobile: Tap the three dots (…) in the top right and select Move to Inbox or Move to Primary
Desktop: Click the folder icon at the top and select Move to Inbox or Primary Apple Mail users:
Tap our email address at the top (next to From: on mobile), then select Add to VIP Other providers:
Reply to this message and add newsletters@analystratings.net to your contacts 2. Confirm your subscription Click this link to confirm your subscription. This verifies your account and ensures you receive your newsletters without interruption instead of getting stuck in your spam filter. Confirm your subscription here. After you confirm, feel free to download our popular free report, "7 Stocks to Buy and Hold Forever" with this link. Thanks again for subscribing—we look forward to being part of your investing journey. 
Matthew Paulson
Founder and CEO, MarketBeat. P.S. If you didn’t mean to subscribe, no problem—you can unsubscribe here.
This Week's Featured Story Merck Just Made a Big Bet on a New Cancer Growth Engine Written by Jessica Mitacek. Article Posted: 3/31/2026. 
Key Points - Merck is set to acquire Terns Pharmaceutical for $6.7 billion, adding its promising leukemia treatment to its growing hematology and cancer pipeline.
- This is Merck’s third multi-billion dollar deal in a year, a bolt-on strategy projected to drive a $70 billion commercial opportunity by the mid-2030s.
- With an average five-year gross margin of 73% and 14 consecutive years of dividend increases, Merck remains a top-tier performer with a Moderate Buy rating.
- Special Report: The Biggest IPO Ever: Claim Your Stake Today
While the health care sector has struggled this year, that hasn’t been the case for all of Big Pharma. Shares of New Jersey-based Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) have outperformed both the sector and the broader market, rising more than 12%. Brand-new data centers in Silicon Valley are finished, wired, and loaded with hardware - but they can't turn on. The grid equipment needed to connect them doesn't exist yet, and the waitlist runs past 2028. With $969 billion in AI spending in motion, this infrastructure bottleneck is already pressuring timelines. One company is positioned to solve it - and a June IPO could force a repricing before most investors take notice. See the full story on the company solving the AI power crisis The drugmaker’s stock recently got a boost after announcing it would acquire Terns Pharmaceuticals—a move that will bolster its cancer-treatment pipeline and reinforce Merck’s reputation as a top-tier serial acquirer. Such mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity has been a major factor in the company’s steady growth and market-cap expansion. Merck’s market value is currently more than $296 billion, trailing only Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) and AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV), at roughly $830 billion and $370 billion, respectively. Merck’s Terns Acquisition Is a Pivotal Oncology Play On March 25, Merck announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Terns, a clinical-stage oncology company developing therapies including TERN-701, an oral allosteric BCR–ABL1 inhibitor for chronic myeloid leukemia. According to the press release, Merck will acquire Terns for $53 per share in cash, implying an equity value of about $6.7 billion. Merck said TERN-701 represents a “potential best-in-class candidate for the treatment of certain patients with chronic myeloid leukemia.” The agreement marks Merck’s third multi-billion-dollar acquisition over the past year. Although still in clinical development, TERN-701 has shown promising activity with “encouraging rates of molecular response and deep molecular response,” including responses in patients with high disease burden who previously received multiple lines of therapy. M&A Activity Has Helped Support Merck’s Earnings and Dividend Profile Merck’s ability to secure deals like the Terns acquisition underscores its central role in the pharmaceutical industry and contributes to a strong earnings track record. The company has missed analyst estimates only once in the past 19 quarters, dating back to Q2 2021. When the company reported Q4 2025 financials on Feb. 3, it posted EPS of $2.04 versus expectations of $2.01 and revenue of $16.40 billion versus expectations of $16.19 billion. With a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 16.45, Merck’s EPS is forecast to grow by nearly 10% over the next year, from $9.01 to $9.90. In his earnings call, CEO Rob Davis attributed the company’s steady growth to new product launches, progress in key clinical programs, and added scale in respiratory and infectious diseases from the Verona Pharma and Cidara Therapeutics acquisitions. “As a result of this progress, we now have line of sight to over $70 billion of potential commercial opportunity by the mid-2030s, $20 billion more than just a year ago and more than double consensus 2028 peak Keytruda revenue of $35 billion,” Davis said. While those revenue projections are attractive to shareholders and prospective investors, the larger takeaway is how quickly Merck has scaled through acquisitions. That M&A strategy—highlighted by the Verona Pharma and Cidara Therapeutics transactions valued at about $10 billion and $9.2 billion, respectively, and now the roughly $6.7 billion Terns deal—has become a hallmark of the company. Merck continues to pursue bolt-on acquisitions to diversify its oncology, immunology, and infectious-disease pipeline. Seamlessly integrating these biotech companies into its portfolio accelerates growth and expands Merck’s market share while minimizing hurdles as it enters new markets. As a result, the company has maintained a five-year average gross margin of more than 73%. Those high and expanding margins indicate superior pricing power and operational efficiency, which together allow Merck to sustain and grow its dividend, currently yielding 2.84% (about $3.40 per share annually). Dividends are common among mature health-care companies—particularly large pharmaceutical and established managed-care firms—but Merck stands out. The company has increased its payout for 14 consecutive years and posts a five-year dividend growth rate of 5.75%. How Wall Street Feels About Merck Based on the 18 analysts covering the stock, Merck has a consensus Moderate Buy rating, with 11 analysts assigning MRK a Buy. With an average one-year price target of $127.13, Wall Street sees roughly 7% upside. Institutional ownership remains above average at more than 76%, with inflows of nearly $37 billion outpacing outflows of about $19 billion over the past 12 months. Current short interest of just 1.18% of the float—roughly 29 million of 2.47 billion shares outstanding—suggests bears are keeping their distance. Merck has been in the green zone on TradeSmith’s financial health indicator for more than six months, and the company scores higher than 93% of the firms evaluated by MarketBeat, ranking 39th out of 858 stocks in the medical sector. | 
