NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / February 5, 2018 / It may have been a lousy market that sent shares of Merck (NYSE: MRK) and The Chrolox Company (NYSE: CLX) lower on Friday as both companies had reported pretty solid earnings results. Losses may also have been the result of both companies beating in earnings but posting revenue that missed analysts' expectations. Both companies have revealed benefits from the new tax reform that President Trump signed.

RDI Initiates Coverage on:

The Clorox Company
https://rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=CLX

Merck & Co., Inc.
https://rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=MRK

The Clorox Company shares closed down 6.71% on about 3.5 million shares traded this past Friday. The California-based company reported its fiscal second quarter results that were better than expected. A profit of $1.77 came to $1.23 a share after being adjusted for pretax gains. Analysts had been expecting $1.22 per share. Revenue of $1.42 billion was a miss however as analysts on Wall Street had expected $1.43 billion. For the full year, Chlorox has raised its forecast because of benefits from the new tax reform. It now expects earnings in the range of $6.17 to $6.37 a share. Since 2018 started, shares of the company have slipped about 12%.

Access RDI's The Clorox Company Research Report at:
https://rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=CLX

Merck & Co., Inc. shares closed down 2.17% on Friday with nearly 12.3 million shares traded. The loss was due to the company reporting mixed fourth quarter earnings last week. For the quarter, the company reported EPS of 98 cents, while analysts had been waiting for 94 cents. It also reported sales of $10.43 billion. This was behind the $10.5 billion that analysts had expected which may have worried some investors. Sales of Keytruda, the company's key cancer drug, was up 169% to $1.30 billion. The drug maker even revealed that its 2018 earnings would probably be better than analysts are expecting. For 2018, Merck is expecting its effective tax rate to drop to 19-20%. The new tax law has dropped the corporate rate from 35% to 21%. For 2018, the company has forecast adjusted profit in the range of $4.08 to $4.23. Analysts are waiting for $4.11.

Access RDI's Merck & Co., Inc. Research Report at:
https://rdinvesting.com/news/?ticker=MRK

Our Actionable Research on The Clorox Company (NYSE: CLX) and Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK) can be downloaded free of charge at Research Driven Investing.

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Disclaimer: This article is written by an independent contributor of RDInvesting.com and Nadia Noorani, a CFA® charter holder, has provided necessary guidance in preparing the document templates. RDInvesting.com is neither a registered broker dealer nor a registered investment advisor. For more information please read our full disclaimer at www.rdinvesting.com/disclaimer.

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SOURCE: RDInvesting.com