Why Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) Performed Worst On Tuesday?

We recently published a list of Pulse of The Market: Tuesday’s 10 Worst Performers. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK) stands against other Tuesday’s worst performers.

Wall Street finished Tuesday’s trading in a lackluster fashion, with all major indices ending in the green territory, but only eking out small gains.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq rallied the most, up by 0.46 percent, followed by the S&P 500 with 0.16 percent, and the Dow Jones with a marginal 0.01 percent.

The muted trading spilled over into individual stocks, with 10 in particular posting significant losses. In this article, let’s explore the top 10 companies that performed poorly on Tuesday.

To come up with the list, we considered only the stocks with $2 billion market capitalization and $5 million in trading volume.

Why Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) Performed Worst On Tuesday?

A close-up of a person’s hand holding a bottle of pharmaceuticals.

Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Merk & Co. fell for a third consecutive day on Tuesday, losing 4.81 percent to close at $87.87 each, shunning an analyst recommendation to buy shares in the company.

In its market note, investment firm Citi maintained a Buy rating on MRK and gave the company a $115 price target, representing a 31-percent upside from its latest stock price.

Citi said its recommendation was based on MRK’s new licensing agreement with Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals which grants MRK the exclusive rights to develop and commercialize HRS-5346, a phase 2 oral small molecule Lp(a) inhibitor, which aims to treat cardiovascular diseases.

Citi underscored the potential market for the treatment of elevated Lp(a), a condition that affects one out of five adults worldwide. It also said that the exclusive license agreement would allow MRK to diversify its portfolio.

Overall, MRK ranks 7th on our list of Tuesday’s worst performers. While we acknowledge the potential of MRK as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as MRK but trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.