Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller’s 2023 Portfolio: Top 5 Stock Picks

4. Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY)

Hedge Fund Stake Value: $208.2 million

Billionaire Druckenmiller cut his stake in Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) by 17% in the first quarter of 2023. Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is still his hedge fund’s fourth biggest holding. Duquesne owns a $208.2 million stake in Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY). Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) shares have gained about 43% over the past one year. Recently, The New England Journal of Medicine published results for a phase 2 trial of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY)’s rheumatoid arthritis drug  peresolimab. The drug met its main goal of efficacy.

As of the end of the last quarter of 2022, 76 hedge funds had stakes in Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY), according to Insider Monkey’s database of 943 hedge funds. The biggest stakeholder of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) was GQG Partners of billionaire Rajiv Jain which owned a $603 million stake in the company.

Alger Spectra Fund made the following comment about Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) in its Q1 2023 investor letter:

“Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is a global pharmaceutical company with core franchises in diabetes, obesity, neurology, and oncology. The company offered exposure to therapeutics in obesity and diabetes via the launch of Mounjaro, as well as in Alzheimer’s via Donanemab which was filed in November 2022 for accelerated Phase 3 approval in mid-2023. While the company reported decent fiscal fourth quarter results, shares detracted from performance after a modest miss in their obesity and diabetes drug. Mounjaro. Moreover, investors became skeptical of potential regulatory scrutiny around Donanemab and its efficacy relative to Biogen’s competing offering.”