Alzheimer’s Drug Franchise Decides Eli Lilly And Co.’s (LLY) Performance

Macquarie Asset Management, an investment management company, released its “Macquarie Large Cap Growth Fund” investor letter for the second quarter of 2025. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The second quarter of 2025 endured significant government policy changes and geopolitical events, which resulted in volatility yet ended with robust performance for equity markets. The Fund’s Institutional Class shares posted an absolute positive return of 11.24% in the quarter, but underperformed the benchmark, the Russell 1000 Growth Index, which returned 17.84%. For more information on the fund’s best picks in 2025, please check its top five holdings.

In its second-quarter 2025 investor letter, the Macquarie Large Cap Growth Fund highlighted stocks such as Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY). Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The one-month return of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) was 8.15%, and its shares lost 18.13% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 19, 2025, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) stock closed at $751.99 per share, with a market capitalization of $674.126 billion.

Macquarie Large Cap Growth Fund stated the following regarding Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:

“The largest contributors were our underweight to Apple Inc., underweight to Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY), and position in Microsoft Corp. Similarly, Eli Lilly underperformed and contributed to relative performance because it is not held in the portfolio. Currently, we believe that the stock’s upside and long-term valuation depend on the success of its Alzheimer’s drug franchise (in addition to its GLP-1 franchise), an area in which we remain unconvinced given the difficulty of early Alzheimer’s diagnosis.”

Was Jim Cramer Right About Eli Lilly and Company (LLY)?

Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. According to our database, 119 hedge fund portfolios held Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) at the end of the second quarter, same as 119 in the previous quarter. Eli Lilly and Company’s (NYSE:LLY) second quarter revenue grew 38% compared to Q2 2024, driven by its key products. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

In another article, we covered Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) and shared the list of best pharma stocks to buy according to billionaires. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.