Eli Lilly Nears $500B Market Cap After Blowout Earnings

Eli Lilly (LLY:US) shares gained more than 16.5% on Tuesday after the company reported much better-than-expected results for its second quarter, paving the way for the full-year outlook lift.

The pharma giant posted an adjusted EPS of $2.11 on revenue of $8.31 billion. Analysts were looking for earnings of $1.98 per share on revenue of $7.58 billion. Sales rose 28% year-over-year as the company’s flagship obesity medicine Mounjaro approached $1 billion in Q2 sales.

"Lilly's financial results in Q2 were led by Mounjaro sales and a strong performance from Growth Products," said David A. Ricks, Lilly's chair and CEO. "Exciting scientific breakthroughs, such as TRAILBLAZER-ALZ 2 in Alzheimer's disease and SURMOUNT-3 and -4 in obesity, encourage us to continue to make significant investments that support our new medicines including multiple launches expected by the end of 2023 to help more patients around the world."

Eli Lilly raised its full-year revenue guidance by $2.2 billion to $33.4 billion - $33.9 billion. The adjusted non-GAAP earnings per share forecast is lifted to the range of $9.20 to $9.40.

LLY stock is now up about 45% year-to-date, giving the company a market capitalization of more than $505 billion. 

Congress members Ro Khanna, Josh Gottheimer, and Dan Newhouse were buying LLY stock throughout 2023. Most notably, Congressman Khanna invested $50,000 - $100,000 in Eli Lilly on February 10, when the stock closed at $345.12.

LLY shares were seen trading at $515 apiece on Tuesday.