shares of merck  co inc mrk rose 14 in premarket trading thursday after the drug giant reported thirdquarter profit and sale that beat expectations and raised its fullyear outlook as sales of the companys top 3 selling drugs topped forecasts net income fell to 325 billion or 128 a share from 457 billion or 180 a share in the yearago period excluding nonrecurring items adjusted earnings per share rose to 185 from 178 beating the factset consensus of 172 sales grew 137 to 1496 billion above the factset consensus of 1407 billion keytruda sales jumped 20 to 543 billion topping expectations of 541 billion of gardasil sales increased 15 to 229 billion above expectations of 207 billion januviajanumet sales fell 15 to 113 billion but beat expectations of 107 billion animal health sales fell 3 to 14 billion and gross margin contracted to 737 from 738 for 2022 merck raised its guidance ranges for adjusted eps to 732 to 737 from 725 to 735 and for sales to 585 billion to 590 billion from 575 billion to 585 billion separately the company said late wednesday that robert davis will succeed ken frazier as chief executive officer as frazier plans to retire on nov 30 2022 the stock has gained 79 over the past three months while the dow jones industrial average djia has slipped 11