F

Merck & Company, Inc. — Earnings Quality Grade F

MRK · Healthcare

Major red flags

Revenue
$65.0B
2025
Net Income
$18.3B
2025
Gross Margin
74.8%
Free Cash Flow
$12.4B
01

Screening Summary

13
Passed
2
Watch
2
Failed
-2.27
M-Score

Management Signals

No recent CEO, CFO, board, or accounting leadership signals found in SEC 8-K filings.
02

Financial Trends

Revenue & Net Income ($B)

Margins (%)

03

18-Point Screening

01

Revenue Quality

A1DSO Change

DSO 66 days, change +8 days YoY

!
A2AR vs Revenue Growth

AR growth 14.6% exceeds revenue growth 1.3%

A3Revenue vs CFFO

Revenue 1.3%, CFFO -23.3%. Cash follows revenue

02

Expense Quality

B1Inventory vs COGS

Inventory 9.0% vs COGS 7.8%. Normal

!
B2CapEx vs Revenue

CapEx growth 21.9% is >2x revenue growth 1.3%

B3SG&A Ratio

SG&A/Gross Profit = 22.1%, excellent (<30%)

B4Gross Margin

Gross margin 74.8%, change -1.5pp. Stable

03

Cash Flow Quality

C1CFFO vs Net Income

CFFO/NI = 0.90. Profits backed by cash

C2Free Cash Flow

FCF $12.4B, FCF/NI = 0.68

C3Accruals Ratio

Accruals ratio = 1.3%. Low accruals

C4Cash vs Debt

Cash $14.6B covers only 30% of debt $49.3B

04

Balance Sheet Health

D1Goodwill + Intangibles

Goodwill+Intangibles $48.3B = 92% of equity. Over 50%

D2Leverage

Debt/EBITDA = 1.7x. Healthy

D3Soft Asset Growth

Other assets 17.3% vs revenue 1.3%. Normal

D4Asset Impairment

No write-off data

05

Acquisition Risk

E1Serial Acquirer FCF

FCF after acquisitions positive

E2Goodwill Surge

Goodwill+Intangibles change 27% YoY. Normal

06

Manipulation Score

F1Beneish M-Score

M-Score = -2.27 (< -2.22). Unlikely manipulator

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04

Beneish M-Score

Manipulation Probability-2.27
-4.0 Clean-2.22 Grey-1.78 Danger0
1.131
DSRI
AR growing faster than revenue?
1.02
GMI
Gross margin declining?
1.067
AQI
Asset quality deteriorating?
1.013
SGI
Revenue growth rate
0.849
DEPI
Depreciation slowing?
0.979
SGAI
SG&A ratio changing?
0.013
TATA
Accruals level
1.022
LVGI
Leverage increasing?
05

Altman Z-Score

4.23
Safe Zone
0 Distress1.102.605.0+ Safe
0.111
Liquidity
0.5339
Cumulative profit
0.1638
Operating efficiency
0.6247
Leverage

Generated from public financial data using forensic accounting frameworks. Not investment advice. Data: Yahoo Finance · 2026-04-25

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About this →

MRK is sitting near the watch threshold across the last 5–6 quarters.

  • Q3 · GM compressionGM: 78.0% → 74.2% (-374 bp)

Updated 2026-05-19