On September 2, Merck rose 3.65% in pre-market trading, trading at $149.86/share. The move was primarily driven by HSBC upgrading the stock from Hold to Buy, further bolstering already elevated market sentiment around the company.

The HSBC upgrade follows a series of bullish analyst actions. Morgan Stanley recently upgraded Merck to Overweight, raising its price target sharply from $116 to $179, while Bank of Montreal lifted its target from $142 to $170. The wave of upgrades stems from the landmark success of the INTerpath-001 Phase III clinical trial, in which Merck's Keytruda combined with Moderna's personalized mRNA cancer vaccine intismeran autogene demonstrated statistically significant improvements in recurrence-free survival and distant metastasis-free survival for resected stage IIB-IV melanoma patients. The two companies have announced plans to engage regulators regarding filing for the combination therapy, opening significant growth potential for Merck in the post-Keytruda exclusivity era. Merck shares had already surged approximately 13% on the initial trial data release, marking the largest single-day gain since 2009.

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