Merck & Co., Inc.’s (NYSE:MRK) fourth quarter of fiscal year 2015 (4QFY15) earnings results were released in the morning today. The pharmaceutical giant disappointed on the quarterly revenues, but posted upbeat earnings per share (EPS). As per the earnings release, the company announced its fiscal year 2016 (FY16) guidance as well, which became the major reason for the investors’ disappointment. The stock dropped over 2% during pre-market hours.
The healthcare company posted $0.93 in EPS, which surpassed the consensus estimate of $0.91, and reflects a 6.8% year-over-year (YoY) growth compared to $0.87 in 4QFY14. This marks the company’s eighth consecutive quarterly EPS beat.
Revenues for the quarter fell short of the expectations at $10.22 billion, compared to the $10.35-billion consensus forecast. It disappointed further, as it was down 2.5% YoY, and thus created long-term sales growth concerns.
For FY16, Merck guided EPS to be in the $3.60-3.75 range, which missed the consensus expectation of $3.72 at the range’s midpoint. It expects to generate $38.7-40.2 billion in revenue during the year, compared to the analysts’ forecast of $40.25 billion.