Eli Lilly (LLY) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

Zacks

Eli Lilly (LLY) closed the most recent trading day at $118.64, moving +1.4% from the previous trading session. This change outpaced the S&P 500’s 0.82% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.79%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.79%.

Coming into today, shares of the drugmaker had gained 8.47% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector gained 5.35%, while the S&P 500 gained 3.94%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from LLY as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be January 30, 2019. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.36, up 19.3% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $6.37 billion, up 3.4% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $5.58 per share and revenue of $24.48 billion. These totals would mark changes of +30.37% and +7.02%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for LLY. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company’s business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.96% higher. LLY currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Digging into valuation, LLY currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 20.97. This represents a premium compared to its industry’s average Forward P/E of 14.88.

Meanwhile, LLY’s PEG ratio is currently 1.82. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company’s expected earnings growth rate. The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.04 at yesterday’s closing price.

The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 96, putting it in the top 37% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

To follow LLY in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.

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