Second-quarter revenue at Merck jumped 28%.

Courtesy of Merck & Co.

Merck reported second-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.87 a share, topping analysts’ estimates.

Merck (ticker: MRK) shares fell 1.1% in premarket trading to $90.26.

Revenue in the quarter of $14.6 billion rose 28% from a year earlier.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected the pharmaceuticals giant to earn $1.70 a share in the second quarter on revenue of $13.9 billion. A year earlier, Merck earned $1.31 a share on revenue of $11.4 billion.

Sales of Merck’s Covid-19 antiviral drug Lagevrio were $1.2 billion in the quarter, higher than estimates of $1.1 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Sales of Keytruda, the company’s cancer drug, rose 26% in the quarter to $5.3 billion, and revenue for Gardasil, Merck’s HPV vaccine, jumped 36%.

Merck said it anticipates worldwide sales in 2022 of between $57.5 billion and $58.5 billion. It previously expected sales of $56.9 billion to $58.1 billion. The. company expects adjusted full-year earnings of $7.25 to $7.35 a share; prior guidance was for adjusted profit of $7.24 to $7.36 a share.

Write to Joe Woelfel at joseph.woelfel@barrons.com

Source: finance.yahoo.com