New York, Feb 8, 2026, 13:04 EST — The market has closed.
- Merck picked up 1.8% to close at $121.93 on Friday, marking a seventh consecutive session in the green.
- Merck Animal Health’s Richard R. DeLuca unloaded 37,685 shares on Feb. 6, according to a regulatory filing.
- Monday’s session opens with investors eyeing the aftermath of Merck’s 2026 guidance and the fresh details on its pipeline.
Merck & Co, Inc. finished Friday’s session up 1.82% at $121.93, putting the stock less than half a percent under its 52-week high as U.S. equities broadly rallied. While Pfizer and Eli Lilly posted bigger moves, Merck outperformed Johnson & Johnson. Trading volume landed at roughly 13 million shares, trailing the 50-day average, MarketWatch data shows.
U.S. markets are closed for the weekend, leaving Merck’s next move squarely in focus on Monday. After a steady climb, the stock sits just below its recent high. What matters now: guidance, filings, pipeline updates. Not just another earnings print.
Late in the week, insider activity showed up on the tape. Such disclosures tend to grab notice with a stock hovering near its highs, routine or not.
According to a Form 4 filed with the U.S. SEC, Merck executive vice president Richard R. DeLuca—who also leads the company’s Animal Health division—sold 37,685 shares on Feb. 6 at a weighted average price of $120.9241 each. The document detailed that individual sales took place within a range from $120.7350 up to $121.3054. After the transactions, DeLuca was left holding 160,173.834 shares directly.
Shares of Merck surged after the company outlined its expectations for 2026, cautioning investors about headwinds from expiring patents—what the industry dubs “loss of exclusivity.” Management projected a $2.5 billion setback that year, citing pressures from generics, Medicare price talks, and slumping demand for the COVID-19 pill Lagevrio. BMO Capital’s Evan Seigerman called the latest quarter “a reasonable foundation for Merck heading into 2026.” Reuters
Merck is steering the spotlight toward its pipeline and progress on new therapies. “In 2025, we continued to advance leading-edge science,” CEO Robert M. Davis said as the company released fresh results and stuck to its 2026 sales target of $65.5 billion to $67.0 billion, along with non-GAAP EPS guidance of $5.00 to $5.15. Also in the update, Merck announced the FDA had accepted a supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) seeking a label update for Winrevair, its treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension. The agency set a Sept. 21, 2026 action date under the PDUFA timeline, which is tied to federal user-fee clocks. Merck.com
So investors are left juggling two clocks: how quickly older franchises fade, and how fast new launches catch on and win label expansions. Keytruda, Merck’s oncology juggernaut, is still the heart of the bull-bear argument. Yet judging by the stock’s latest move, some are clearly prepared to hang on for more definitive signs.
Near term, traders are eyeing Merck to see if it can stay north of $120 after this week’s rally—and how it reacts if the wider market loses steam. Moves in peer stocks are worth watching, too, since money in big-cap pharma often shifts fast when risk sentiment changes.
Still, there’s risk on the table. If legacy brands lose ground to generics faster than anticipated—or if there’s any hitch in pushing new drugs through the pipeline or regulatory process—the spotlight could snap back to that 2026 gap, and the nagging question of how to fill the revenue hole in 2027 and after.
Merck’s first-quarter earnings call lands April 30. Investors are set to track any fresh signals on product demand, pricing headwinds, and what the company has in mind for spending.
