MRK vs XOM: Which Is the Better Buy?
Side-by-side comparison of Merck & Co., Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corporation — fair value, conviction, valuation metrics, and QuantHub research signals.
Updated 2026-05-20.
Merck & Co., Inc. · Healthcare
$114.27
+3.3% upside to fair value
Grade C
High Quality
VS
Exxon Mobil Corporation · Energy
$154.46
-40.5% upside to fair value
Grade C
QuantHub Verdict
MRK has more upside to fair value
(+3.3%).
MRK trades at a lower forward P/E
(22.4x).
These are model outputs — not personalized investment advice.
See all research →
Valuation & Fundamentals
| Metric |
MRK |
XOM |
| Current Price |
$114.27 |
$154.46 |
| Fair Value Estimate |
$118.00 |
$91.87 |
| Upside to Fair Value |
+3.3%
|
-40.5%
|
| Market Cap |
$282.2B |
$642.0B |
| Forward P/E |
22.4x
|
23.2x
|
| EV / EBITDA |
13.5x
|
10.3x
|
| Price / Sales |
4.3x
|
2.0x
|
| Price / FCF |
20.2x
|
27.2x
|
| Revenue Growth YoY |
+5.0%
|
-1.3%
|
| Gross Margin |
81.9%
|
21.7%
|
| Operating Margin |
27.5%
|
10.5%
|
| Return on Equity |
5.6%
|
11.0%
|
| Dividend Yield |
2.91% |
0% |
| FCF Yield |
4.95%
|
3.68%
|
| Analyst Consensus |
Overweight
|
Buy
|
Investment Thesis
Merck delivered a clean Q1 2026 operational beat on April 30, with revenue of 16.3 billion dollars growing 5 percent year over year and Keytruda sales rising 12 percent to 8.0 billion dollars. The reported loss of 1.28 dollars per share, though better than the negative 1.47 dollar consensus estimate, reflected a 3.62 dollar per share IPR and D charge tied to the Cidara Therapeutics acquisition an…
Exxon Mobil Corporation operates as a global integrated oil and gas company with significant operations in upstream, energy products, chemical products, and specialty products segments. The company benefits from a highly experienced management team with decades of internal tenure, led by CEO Darren Woods. Despite strong cash flow generation and operational scale, Exxon is currently overvalued, tr…
Accumulation Zones
| Metric |
MRK |
XOM |
| Zone Low |
$88.50 |
$68.90 |
| Zone High |
$100.30 |
$78.09 |
| In Buy Zone? |
No
|
No
|