Merck: 1Q Earnings Snapshot

KENILWORTH, N.J. (AP) _ Merck & Co. (MRK) on Tuesday reported first-quarter earnings of $3.22 billion.

The Kenilworth, New Jersey-based company said it had profit of $1.26 per share. Earnings, adjusted for costs related to mergers and acquisitions and restructuring costs, came to $1.50 per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.39 per share.

The pharmaceutical company posted revenue of $12.06 billion in the period.

Merck expects full-year earnings in the range of $5.17 to $5.37 per share, with revenue in the range of $46.1 billion to $48.1 billion.

Merck shares have fallen almost 8% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has declined 11%. The stock has risen 10% in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on MRK at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MRK