Opinions
Lorne Steinberg
Eli Lilly & Co.
LLY-N
SELL
Jun 27, 2024
Stock price when the opinion was issued
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He owns a small holding. Likes their growth profile from their weight-loss drug; they will continue to take market share from Novo Nordisk. The big news this week was that drug shortages were over. They lowered the price too. But shares are expensive at 20x PE on 2028 numbers--expensive for a pharmaceutical. It's had a big run, so he's not adding shares, but trimming.
Plethora of ideas. Part of the story on cancer. Weight-loss drug is in the lead, and a pill instead of injection is the ultimate goal. Earnings from weight loss will double in 3 years, and then they still have all the other drugs in the pipeline. Yield is 0.70%.
(Analysts’ price target is $996.37)The more successful of the GLP-1 stocks compared to NVO. Decent entry point. Trades in the 30s on forward PE, so there's a strong expectation of prescription growth; every reason to believe that's going to happen.
Be cautious on position size; don't be aggressive. Stock was down 10% yesterday because NVO made a deal with CVS to become its prime recommended product for obesity. So NVO is starting to compete more on price.
Both are just too expensive. NVO is riding the wave of Ozempic, and already seeing a slew of competitive drugs to be released in next few years. LLY has been an incredibly well-run business. He could never buy something with a chart that looks like these, he just has to say he missed it and look for something that will generate returns for clients.
Tough thing with pharma is these drugs are massive successes, you get maybe 12 years of patent protection. Then your biggest success becomes your biggest concern as the patent wears off, and you struggle to find something else. It always happens.