The stock price of American pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly has skyrocketed, even comparable to some high growth tech giants. Analysts are beginning to discuss whether the company will become the first US company with a market value of $1 trillion outside of the Big Seven in the US stock market.
Lilly's stock price rose over 3% on Friday, reaching a historic high of $782.06 per share. Thanks to strong market demand for its new weight loss medication, Lilly's stock price has risen 34% this year, with a market value exceeding $740 billion.
Of course, Warren Buffett's business empire, Berkshire Hathaway, is also expected to compete for the glory of the first trillion dollar non tech company. Berkshire is currently the seventh largest listed company in the United States, valued at approximately $880 billion.
Morgan Stanley analysts said in a client report, "Will Lilly become the first biopharmaceutical stock with a market value of $1 trillion? We continue to see room for further growth."
Last month, Lilly's market value surpassed Tesla, who is facing a slowdown in sales growth. Tesla is currently the only company among the seven giants in the US stock market with a market value below $1 trillion, with a current market value of $635.6 billion. Some people believe that Lilly has ample reason to replace Tesla and become one of the seven giants in the US stock market.
Lilly released its quarterly financial report this month that exceeded expectations, and its performance guidance also exceeded analyst estimates. French institutions such as Societe Generale, Jeffrey, and Barclays subsequently raised Lilly's target stock price.
The financial report shows that the sales of Mounjaro, a diabetes drug of Eli Lilly, in the fourth quarter of last year was 2.21 billion US dollars, significantly higher than the market expectation of 1.75 billion US dollars, a sharp increase from 279.2 million US dollars in the same period of last year. The weight loss drug Zepbound, which has the same ingredients as Mounjaro, began selling in early December last year, with sales of $176 million in the fourth quarter.
Lilly expects its revenue to be between $40.4 billion and $41.6 billion in 2024, with adjusted earnings per share ranging from $12.20 to $12.70.
Zepbound and Mounjaro belong to a class of drugs called GLP-1 (glucagon like peptide-1), which works by inhibiting appetite and delaying gastric emptying to lose weight. Patients can lose an average of 15% -20% of their weight after use.
CFRA Research analyst Sel Hardy said, "Since 2023, we have seen many retail investors' interest in Lilly driven by the GLP-1 craze, but we do not believe that Lilly is just a story of GLP-1."
Hardy believes that Lilly has recently diversified its business through a series of acquisitions, and its advantages lie in its investment in research and development and the increase in sales of anti-cancer drugs.