New York, Jan 8, 2026, 13:46 EST — Regular session
- Merck shares rose about 1.5% after Wolfe Research upgraded the stock and set a $135 price target
- Merck said it completed its $221.50-a-share tender offer for Cidara and flagged a roughly $9 billion 2026 R&D charge
- Investors are also tracking fallout from a U.S. shift toward a single-dose HPV vaccine recommendation ahead of Merck’s Feb. 3 results
Merck & Co shares rose 1.5% to $110.20 in afternoon trading on Thursday after Wolfe Research upgraded the drugmaker, outpacing a softer health-care sector. The stock traded as high as $112.08 and as low as $107.94, while AbbVie slid about 3.9% and the S&P 500 ETF was little changed.
The move comes as investors try to sort out two cross-currents: Merck’s push to broaden its pipeline and a fast-moving U.S. debate over vaccine policy that touches one of its biggest franchises. Merck said it will report fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results on Feb. 3, with executives scheduled to speak at 9:00 a.m. ET. 1
Wolfe Research analyst Alexandria Hammond upgraded Merck to Outperform from Peer Perform and set a $135 price target — a broker estimate of where the shares could trade. In a note carried by The Fly, Hammond described Merck’s five-year revenue bridge as “attractive” after factoring in late-stage pipeline assets and recent dealmaking; Wolfe also cut AbbVie to Peer Perform, arguing expectations for Skyrizi and Rinvoq outperformance were already priced in. 2
Merck said on Wednesday it had completed a $221.50-per-share cash tender offer for Cidara Therapeutics and planned to finish the acquisition through a merger, taking the influenza-focused biotech private. Chief Executive Robert Davis said the deal “strengthens and complements” Merck’s respiratory portfolio, but the company also said the purchase will be treated as an asset acquisition and is expected to lift 2026 research-and-development expense by about $9.0 billion under GAAP, the standard accounting rulebook, with about a 30-cent hit to earnings over the first 12 months. 3
Merck also said it has started KANDLELIT-007, a Phase 3 trial — a late-stage study that can support approval — testing its KRAS G12C drug calderasib with a subcutaneous version of Keytruda, called Keytruda QLEX, in certain advanced lung cancer patients. The study will enroll about 675 patients, and Merck’s Gregory Lubiniecki said the chemo-free combination “requires no intravenous access.” 4
Still, vaccine policy is creeping into the Merck story. An independent group said it will review evidence for the human papillomavirus vaccine after U.S. health officials shifted to a single-dose recommendation even though Merck’s Gardasil is approved on a two- or three-dose regimen; Merck said regulators had raised concerns that a single-dose approach could be less effective or less durable, and the company reported $2.4 billion in U.S. Gardasil sales in 2024, Reuters reported. “While we’re not ACIP, we’re trying to fill in the deficits in science information,” said Michael Osterholm, who leads the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. 5
But the catalysts cut both ways. A sustained shift toward fewer Gardasil doses would pressure volumes over time, while Merck is absorbing deal costs and leaning on late-stage trials that can miss endpoints or run into safety setbacks.
Next up is Feb. 3, when Merck reports results and hosts its conference call. Traders are likely to listen for any early read on vaccine demand after the HPV recommendation change, and for how management frames the post-Keytruda growth plan with deals and the late-stage pipeline.
