Sometimes, all it takes is a little extra analyst sentiment to push a stock up. And sometimes, it doesn’t help at all. That’s what happened, oddly enough, to drugmaker Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) in Tuesday’s trading, as it got a price target adjustment, but it still wasn’t enough to prevent a fractional loss in the session.
The price adjustment came out of Argus via analyst Jasper Hellweg. Hellweg hiked the target up to $840 per share, noting that Eli Lilly’s line of diabetes and weight loss drugs are proving winners in their own right. Mounjaro and Zepbound, the brand names of the duo, are set to drive growth well beyond 2024, which prompted a price hike. It’s worth noting that, so far, Hellweg has enjoyed a 100% success rate on LLY stock, with an average return of 52.05% per rating.
It certainly doesn’t hurt matters that tirzepatide, one of the key ingredients of the drugs, is also showing excellent results as a sleep apnea treatment. That, in turn, will likely bolster the market size nicely.
Augmenting Its Production
Further, not long ago, we heard about Eli Lilly’s plans to pick up further manufacturing operations from Nexus Pharmaceuticals. Such a bid was regarded as a smart idea at the time, and it remains as such. If Eli Lilly’s diabetes/weight loss drugs come with a sleep apnea control component as well, then that’s just more demand that Eli Lilly will want to fill to take full advantage of the market’s total scope. Extra manufacturing certainly won’t hurt there, particularly if the demand looks to continue for some time to come, which it does.
Is Eli Lilly a Good Stock to Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on LLY stock based on 17 Buys and three Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 75.31% rally in its share price over the past year, the average LLY price target of $888.72 per share implies 17.44% upside potential.
