4. Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders:
Pharma giant Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is one of Jim Cramer’s favorite stocks in the sector. Its shares are up by 18.6% over the past year and down by 13.4% year-to-date. However, over the past five days, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY)’s stock is up by 4.6%. It closed 7.6% higher between March 30th and April 1st. On March 31st, the firm announced that it would acquire sleep disorder treatment maker Centessa for a $7.8 billion price tag. Estimates from analysts suggested that Centessa’s drugs could represent a market that is as large as $20 billion. On April 1st, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY)’s GLP-1 weight loss pill called Foundayo. Cramer commented on the acquisition:
“You know, one of the things that your eyes glaze over in these deals, that are under ten billion. They bought Centessa for 7.8 billion and I just said, oh it was just a sleep disorder thing. No, it’s a peptide, that impacts brain for many, many different ways. Not just for sleep. And a lot of people really liked it, David, because one of the things that Lilly is doing, they’re taking on really hard issues, taking on really hard brain issues, which have historically been, kind of, difficult. Companies don’t like to do it, because many have failed. This is a relatively, looks like sleep, looks like wakefulness and narcolepsy. It could be far more than that. And I think, once again, Lilly, with this peptide buy, is saying, we’re not afraid, we’re willing to lose money, we’ll go big, maybe go home. But David, the tie up with Lilly and NVIDIA is very close. . . .it’s a way to speed up, it’s drug discovery. So maybe you run this peptide through, the giant database, that maybe would normally take, maybe a year, to go through, and you could do it in a couple of days. And I think we just have to watch when a forward thinking company like Lilly, with David Ricks at the helm, he’s taking the cash and saying, you know what, I’m going after Parkinson’s, I’m going after ADHD.”
Janus Henderson Forty Fund discussed Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) in its fourth quarter 2025 investor letter:
“Relative performance benefited from several healthcare holdings, notably Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY). The global pharmaceuticals company reported strong third-quarter results, fueled by accelerating sales growth for its blockbuster glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) weight loss products, Mounjaro and Zepbound. The company has several pipeline drugs that are performing well in late-stage clinical trials. These include orforglipron, a once-daily oral GLP-1 medication, and retatrutide, which targets a higher degree of weight loss and could provide a strong compliment to the company’s other GLP-1 products. Eli Lilly reached an agreement with the U.S. government on pricing and access to GLP-1 drugs for Medicare and Medicaid users, which may further expand the market potential for its weight loss drugs.”
