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

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In the latest trading session, Eli Lilly (LLY - Free Report) closed at $453.93, marking a +1.39% move from the previous day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 1.22% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 1.26%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 4.63%.

Heading into today, shares of the drugmaker had gained 2.34% over the past month, outpacing the Medical sector's loss of 1.47% and lagging the S&P 500's gain of 6.22% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Eli Lilly as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.97, up 57.6% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $7.51 billion, up 15.71% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $8.79 per share and revenue of $31.44 billion, which would represent changes of +10.71% and +10.17%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Eli Lilly. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an 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 0.07% higher. Eli Lilly is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, Eli Lilly currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 50.93. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 14.83, which means Eli Lilly is trading at a premium to the group.

It is also worth noting that LLY currently has a PEG ratio of 2.23. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.66 as of yesterday's close.

The Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 76, which puts it in the top 31% 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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