New York, February 14, 2026, 17:21 EST — The market has wrapped up trading for the day.
Merck & Co Inc jumped 1.8% to settle at $121.41 on Friday, notching a new 52-week high of $123.33 during the session, after Deutsche Bank bumped its rating and set a $150 price target for the pharma giant. U.S. markets then closed for the weekend.
Timing is crucial here. Merck’s investors are piecing together what growth could look like after Keytruda, the company’s top-selling cancer drug, faces looming patent expirations later this decade. Older drugs are also on track to become a bigger drag as their exclusivity ends. Earlier this month, Merck laid out a 2026 revenue forecast of $65.5 billion to $67.0 billion, with CEO Rob Davis pointing to a “disconnect” with Wall Street over how the market is factoring in those legacy drugs “going off patent.” Reuters
Merck dropped more oncology updates this week, announcing Thursday it plans to showcase new bladder and kidney cancer findings at the ASCO GU meeting set for Feb. 26-28. Highlights include late-breaking KEYNOTE-B15 data on Keytruda plus Padcev. Dr. Marjorie Green, a Merck executive, said the team was “excited to share new results” from both its established portfolio and its pipeline. Merck.com
Trading won’t pick up again until Tuesday, with the NYSE shuttered Monday for Washington’s Birthday—Presidents Day on the calendar. That’s a day later than traders are used to.
Deutsche Bank’s James Shin called Friday’s upgrade a wager that investors are overly pessimistic about the so-called “patent cliff,” that familiar revenue hit when generics show up. “We believe the market is currently undervaluing MRK,” Shin wrote. He sees a “clear path” for Merck to manage the Keytruda shift, and flagged AbbVie’s strategy after Humira lost exclusivity as a model. Investing.com
Some standard insider maneuvering cropped up too. Merck’s chief marketing officer, Chirfi Guindo, unloaded 10,000 shares on Feb. 12, fetching a weighted average of roughly $121.46 per share, according to a Form 4. He’d earlier filed an amended Form 144 with plans to offload as many as 20,000 shares, using Morgan Stanley as the broker.
Merck acted while the broader market kept swinging. The S&P 500 managed a modest gain Friday. The Nasdaq dipped. Investors pulled back on risk, despite a softer U.S. inflation print, as the three-day weekend loomed.
Still, there’s a catch for bulls—execution risk. Should Keytruda demand fade ahead of what analysts are modeling, or if the latest oncology data doesn’t actually drive new prescriptions, the logic behind those upgrades could fall apart quickly.
Traders are eyeing whether Friday’s rally sticks through Tuesday’s open, and if a flurry of conference headlines keeps the spotlight on Merck’s oncology pipeline. With holiday-thinned liquidity, the opening stretch could get choppy.
Merck’s first-quarter results land April 30, marking the next major checkpoint for the stock. Investors will be scanning for updates to 2026 guidance and hoping management clarifies its strategy for navigating the post-Keytruda landscape.
