Eli Lilly and Company (LLY)

Over the past six months (April to October 2025), Eli Lilly's stock price has experienced notable movements. The stock was up 10.20% over this period. In April 2025, the stock soared following strong earnings and high demand for its weight-loss and diabetes drugs, leading the company to raise its full-year guidance. In August 2025, Leerink Partners downgraded Eli Lilly, lowering its price target due to disappointing obesity pill results and competitive dynamics. In late September and early October 2025, Eli Lilly's stock saw a positive impact from discussions with U.S. authorities regarding drug pricing initiatives.

Eli Lilly's fiscal year aligns with the standard calendar year, ending on December 31. The company strategically focuses its research and development (R&D) cycles and clinical trial phases, often resulting in significant milestones being reported in the fourth quarter. There has been consistently high demand for its weight-loss and diabetes drugs, Mounjaro and Zepbound, and the company has been actively increasing its manufacturing capacity to meet this surging demand. Historically, implied volatility for LLY stock has tended to rise most in October and decline to its lowest levels in June.

Eli Lilly and Co. is a global pharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, manufacturing, and marketing human healthcare products. Its major products are concentrated in therapeutic areas such as cardiometabolic health, oncology, immunology, and neuroscience, with key brands including Basaglar, Humalog, Jardiance, Trulicity, Cyramza, Emgality, Verzenio, Mounjaro, and Zepbound. Mounjaro and Zepbound are significant for treating type 2 diabetes and obesity and have seen soaring demand. The company also has a history of producing well-known drugs like Cialis, Prozac, and Zyprexa.

Eli Lilly has a significant global presence with R&D facilities, production, and distribution operations across North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. Its products are sold in approximately 125 countries. In Europe, Lilly has R&D and manufacturing sites in Fegersheim (France), Sesto Fiorentino (Italy), Kinsale (Ireland), and Alcobendas (Spain), with additional sites under development in Limerick (Ireland) and Alzey (Germany). The company plans to bolster its domestic medicine production by building four new pharmaceutical manufacturing sites in the United States, bringing its total U.S. capital expansion commitments to over $50 billion since 2020. These new U.S. sites will focus on manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredients and expanding its global parenteral manufacturing network for injectable therapies.

In the past year, Eli Lilly's brand reputation faced scrutiny due to a severe reprimand in the Netherlands in February 2025 for disseminating misleading information about its obesity drug Mounjaro, requiring the company to send a correction letter to general practitioners. Additionally, in January 2024, U.S. FDA inspectors uncovered manufacturing problems at Eli Lilly's Branchburg, New Jersey, plant, citing deficiencies in quality control practices, equipment maintenance, and tracking manufacturing processes. Eli Lilly stated that these observations were addressed and did not affect the quality, safety, or supply of its products.

Eli Lilly and Company has substantial institutional ownership, with institutional investors collectively owning a significant portion of the company's shares, around 79% or 89%. The largest institutional shareholders include Lilly Endowment Inc., Vanguard Group Inc., BlackRock, Inc., PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., and State Street Corp. Lilly Endowment Inc. controls over 10% of the stock. Insider trading activity in the past six months has shown more sales than purchases by company insiders, though some individual executives have made purchases.