Widespread infections early in the year weigh on Merck Q1

<p>KENILWORTH, NJ &mdash; COVID-19 infections weighed Merck with so many people avoiding visits to hospitals or even the doctor early in the first quarter. </p>
<p>The pharmaceutical company said drug sales were strong, the effect of the pandemic pulled profits down by about 1%. </p>
<p>Merck &amp; Co. on Thursday reported first-quarter earnings of $3.18 billion, or $1.25 per share. Excluding one-time gains and costs, per-share earnings were $1.40, falling far short of the $1.63 Wall Street was looking for, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research.</p>
<p>Shares fell more than 3% before the opening bell. </p>
<p>Revenue was $12.08 billion. </p>
<p>Merck expects full-year earnings in the range of $6.48 to $6.68 per share, with revenue in the range of $51.8 billion to $53.8 billion.</p>
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<p>A portion of this story was generated by Automated Insights (<a href="http://automatedinsights.com/ap">http://automatedinsights.com/ap</a>) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on MRK at <a href="https://www.zacks.com/ap/MRK">https://www.zacks.com/ap/MRK</a></p>