Eli Lilly (LLY) Bulls Eye $1,000 Stock Price Target as GLP-1 Alpha Bandwagon Rolls On
Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) has emerged as one of the most compelling opportunities in the market today. The company is entering the prime of its new chapter, focused on leading the way in weight loss and diabetes treatments. I recently sold my Novo Nordisk (NVO) shares—not because I doubt Novo's science, but because I believe Lilly boasts stronger management, superior operational execution, and greater upside potential over the next one to three years. My 12-month price target for Lilly is $1,100.
Confident Investing Starts Here:
GLP-1 Leadership with Clinical Momentum
Lilly's recent breakthrough has been nothing short of transformational. Its dual GLP-1 therapy, tirzepatide—marketed as Mounjaro for diabetes and Zepbound for obesity—is dominating the market, generating $3.84 billion and $2.31 billion in Q1 FY2025 revenues, respectively. Even more impressive, tirzepatide has shown superior weight loss results compared to Novo Nordisk's semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy), with Zepbound users achieving around 20% weight loss versus roughly 14% in Wegovy studies. The data is clear, and momentum is firmly on Lilly's side.
Adding to my confidence is the strength of Lilly's product pipeline. Orforglipron, an oral GLP-1 candidate, recently delivered compelling Phase 3 results as the first oral, non-peptide GLP-1 agonist to match the efficacy of injectable therapies—potentially revolutionizing the patient experience in weight-loss treatment.
Meanwhile, retatrutide, a triple-agonist targeting GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon receptors, achieved a remarkable 24% weight loss in early obesity trials and is advancing rapidly through Phase 3. If these next-generation drugs succeed, they could unlock hundreds of billions in new market value.
Management & Manufacturing Excellence Compound Returns
Great companies aren't built on strong drugs alone—they're built on strong management. What stands out most about Eli Lilly isn't just its innovative pipeline but the exceptional execution behind it. CEO David Ricks and his team have shown remarkable conviction in targeting diabetes and obesity as key growth drivers, backing that vision with massive investment.
Since 2020, Lilly has poured over $50 billion into expanding U.S. manufacturing mega-sites capable of producing injectables and oral medications at scale. This is not only a bet on growth but a strategic move to reduce future risks. With Novo Nordisk facing supply constraints, Lilly's vertical integration of manufacturing infrastructure is a smart play to avoid similar pitfalls. That kind of foresight is exactly what I want managing my investments.
Lilly's performance backs this up— Q1 Fiscal 2025 showed gross margins at a stellar 83.5%, up year-over-year. While R&D spending grew, it didn't outpace revenue, creating operating leverage. Selling and administrative costs rose 26%, but top-line revenue jumped 45%, signaling intelligent growth. With a forward P/E near 35 and a sales multiple around 11, Lilly isn't cheap, but it doesn't need to be. Earnings are projected to surge nearly 40% in Fiscal 2026, justifying the valuation. In my view, the market still undervalues Lilly's resilience and staying power.
Technical Positioning & Price Outlook
After peaking near $955 last year, Lilly shares have pulled back to around $720. On May 14, the stock's relative strength index hit 35, signaling strong value by most technical measures. For retail investors like me, that's a clear opportunity alert. While the stock remains below both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages after a 'Death Cross' indicating short-term bearish momentum, I consider that noise irrelevant for medium- to long-term investors.
I view this as a rare chance to buy into a powerhouse at a discount. Given the current earnings growth trajectory, I believe shares will not only revisit but likely surpass their all-time highs soon. My 12-month price target of $1,100 implies roughly 50% upside. Fundamentally, the market is still coming to grips with the massive potential of the GLP-1 market, and I see few obstacles standing in the way of sustained growth.
Is Eli Lilly a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
On Wall Street, Eli Lilly has a consensus Strong Buy rating with 16 Buys, one Hold, and one Sell rating. LLY's average stock price target is $1,003.14, indicating almost 40% upside potential in the next 12 months. That's slightly below my own more bullish estimate, but still remarkable nonetheless.
Healthcare Powerhouse Poised for Long-Term Growth
Eli Lilly is a completely different company than it was just two or three years ago—now an innovation-driven, operationally disciplined giant leading the biggest secular growth story in healthcare. This isn't a quick trade for me; it's a long-term hold as Lilly scales its GLP-1 pipeline with promising new launches like orforglipron and retatrutide.
With management's vision, strong clinical execution, disciplined approach, and significant valuation upside, LLY stands out as one of the most compelling stocks on the market. I've confidently taken my position and am ready to hold steady through the next few years of growth.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
an hour ago
- Fox News
Diabetic patients taking GLP-1s may face increased risk of eye disease, study suggests
Diabetes is the leading cause of vision loss in people between 18 and 64 years old, according to the American Diabetes Association — and the best way to prevent this is to control blood sugar levels. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1s), such as Ozempic and Mounjaro, have become popular medications for controlling diabetes and treating obesity — but new Canadian research suggests they can also lead to a paradoxical side effect in the form of eye problems. A retrospective study conducted from January 2020 to November 2023 included more than 139,000 diabetic patients, some of whom were taking GLP-1s for at least six months and some who were not taking the medications over a three-year period. The average age of the participants was 66 years old, and approximately 47% were women. Researchers found that the participants taking the weight-loss medications had twice the risk of developing neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) compared to the people not taking them. "There have been growing reports of [eye] adverse events with GLP-1 receptor agonists, but no clear consensus regarding their impact on age-related macular degeneration (AMD) progression," study author Dr. Rajeev Muni, an ophthalmologist and vice-chair of clinical research in the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences at the University of Toronto, told Fox News Digital. "In particular, we observed a dose-response relationship — the longer patients were exposed to these medications, the greater their risk appeared to be," added author Reut Shor, a researcher in the department of ophthalmology and vision sciences at the University of Toronto. The findings were published in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of vision loss in those aged 50 and older in the developing world, according to the American Society of Retinal Specialists. Approximately 20 million adults in the U.S. have the condition. It mainly affects people's central vision, which means they have a challenging time seeing in front of them, but their peripheral vision is intact, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). There are two types of AMD – dry and wet. Dry AMD, the most common type, occurs when small yellow deposits of protein develop under the macula, but symptoms may not occur in the early stages, experts said. "The longer patients were exposed to these medications, the greater their risk appeared to be." In about two out of every 10 cases, dry AMD develops into wet AMD — also known as neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). With this more advanced type of disease, abnormal blood vessels form under the retina and start to leak, causing damage to the central part of the retina, known as the macula, according to WebMD. "When this occurs, symptoms include loss of central vision, distortions in vision and blank areas missing in the central vision," Nishika Reddy, M.D., assistant professor of ophthalmology at Moran Eye Center's Midvalley Health Center at the University of Utah, told Fox News Digital. (She was not part of the study.) Risk factors for nAMD include chronic heart failure, chronic kidney disease and diabetes – all of which often overlap with those who take GLP-1s, experts confirmed. The study authors cautioned that their findings should be taken in the context of the overall higher risk of eye disease in older people. The incidence of nAMD in the general population is about one in 1,000, and it doubled to two in 1,000 for the group taking the GLP-1s in the study. However, the overall absolute risk is still small, according to the researchers. The study's main limitation is that it was observational in nature, meaning the researchers could not confirm that GLP-1s medications cause neovascular age-related macular degeneration. The study also could not draw conclusions about younger populations, the researchers acknowledged. "Also, our findings apply only to diabetic patients aged 66 years or older, and cannot be directly generalized to non-diabetic individuals using GLP-1 receptor agonists for weight loss," Shor told Fox News Digital. "While the risk of developing macular degeneration while on a GLP-1 drug is low, patients should be aware of the possible eye side effects." GLP-1 receptors are present in the retina regardless of age or diabetes status — so theoretically, the risk could apply to younger populations. More research is needed to better understand why diabetic people on GLP-1s have increased eye disease, Shor said. "While the risk of developing macular degeneration while on a GLP-1 drug is low, patients should be aware of the possible eye side effects related to these types of medications," Reddy said. If someone notices blurred or distorted vision, straight lines appearing wavy, or any new blind spots, they should seek medical attention, according to Muni. For more Health articles, visit Early detection of eye disease is crucial, experts agree, as timely treatment can reduce the risk of vision loss. The study authors said they hope their findings will empower patients to monitor for early symptoms.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Americans say they care about getting enough protein and avoiding food dyes. Their eating habits say otherwise.
Americans are fed a lot of information about what counts as healthy food. We wanted to know if these nutritional values are really as important to Americans as the headlines suggest, so, with the help of YouGov, we polled more than 1,500 U.S. adults in April 2025. The results: Most people agree that protein is important, and food dyes should be banned. And yet, a much smaller share of Americans are checking food labels for these ingredients. So what gives? We spoke to experts about whether Americans really value the nutritional concerns that make headlines, and what you can do to better align your ideals with your dietary habits. We asked Americans about whether they consider nutritional information when they choose what to eat and, if so, what factors they prioritize (meaning: calories, sodium, etc.). Then we zoomed in on two nutritional topics that have gotten a lot of buzz lately: protein and red dyes. Protein has been having a moment, partly because it's what some experts have dubbed 'the last macronutrient standing' amid the bad raps of fats and carbs. Its connection to muscle building and weight loss — especially in conjunction with GLP-1 medications like Ozempic — has been a further boon to protein. Americans seem to have taken note. A large majority (85%) of respondents to the Yahoo News/YouGov poll said that protein is very or somewhat important to them when choosing what to eat. Yet among the two-thirds of respondents who said they check nutritional labels, only 13% said that protein is the factor they pay most attention to when choosing what to eat. And only about a quarter of respondents said they're eating more protein now than they were a year ago. We found the same pattern when it comes to food dyes. More than two-thirds (65%) of respondents to our poll said they approve of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s move to ban many artificial colorings. But only 37% of respondents said they actively avoid food dyes, and just 27% said they always or usually check food labels for the ingredients (another 24% said they sometimes check). If we're so aware of what we should be including or avoiding in our food, but don't necessarily act on it, are we just too lazy to make healthy choices? Not exactly. For example, 66% of the respondents to our survey make the effort to check nutritional information. But the most commonly considered factor was calorie content (16%), which isn't necessarily a good indicator of whether a food is healthy, according to recent research. While it might seem fairly easy to check foods for their content of other nutrients, calculating out how much we need of each of these (protein, vitamins, etc.) gets complicated, fast. 'There's a lot of evidence that people don't take actions that are in their best interests based on their knowledge,' says Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, director of Tufts University's Food Is Medicine Institute. 'People have an aspirational image of what they would like to do, and then [there's] what they do in real life.' This phenomenon is known as the intention-action gap. 'And for nutrition, it's doubly or triply complicated by the beliefs and intentions and knowledge also being a huge source of confusion for people,' says Mozaffarian. Picture yourself at the grocery store or in the drive-through line. What's on your checklist? Protein? Food dyes? Calories? Whole grains? And how much is enough, or too much, and what even qualifies as a whole grain anyway? Does a Whopper meal count as paleo? 'That confusion dramatically increases the gap between aspirations and actions,' says Mozaffarian. It also takes time — a lot of it. 'Our lives are all busy, and just because we would like to do something doesn't mean we will actually get around to doing it,' Teresa Fung, an adjunct professor of nutrition at Simmons University and Harvard University, tells Yahoo Life. And with new diet trends and hyped ingredients and priorities cropping up all the time, it can be hard to stay focused on the things that really matter for your personal diet. Fung is glad that people are aware of issues like food additives, 'but hopefully it's not at the expense of other things,' she says. 'If it's just for a few months that I'm paying attention to [any one food issue] and then a year from now I'm not,' that's not helpful, she adds. However, some public health experts, including Mozzaffarian, believe that certain foods 'just shouldn't be on the shelf,' he says. Specifically, he notes that poor quality diets and ultra-processed foods are linked to health conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome (a collection of related health problems common among overweight and obese people). 'It's not an information problem, it's a product problem,' Mozzaffarian says. Until food is better regulated, nutrition labels are still key to making healthy choices, says Mozaffarian. Grocery shopping and cooking at home go a long way to help you take control of your health, instead of eating packaged, restaurant or fast foods. And, perhaps counterintuitively, 'if you want to eat healthier, buy more products without labels,' Mozaffarian says, meaning whole foods like fruits, vegetables and eggs. When it comes to protein, most people actually don't need to stress too much about whether they're eating enough of it. 'The typical American diet already has enough protein, so if people are already doing it, they don't really need to take the additional action' of checking labels for protein content, she says. Fung also suspects that, like most single-nutrient eating trends, the protein obsession will fade. 'It happens all the time: There are always new discoveries, and people focus on them until they're no longer new, then we wait for the next shiny new thing,' she says. That's another strategy: If the food rules you're trying to follow are super trendy, they probably aren't that sustainable, or essential, Fung adds. However, in some cases, there's a grain of truth to nutritional trends, and some exceptions are worth making. For example, perimenopausal and menopausal women really do need to up their protein intake. And the majority of Americans don't eat enough fiber, so the ongoing fibermaxxing trend actually is dietitian-approved. Fung and Mozaffarian acknowledge that, even if you aren't trying to keep up with the latest food fad, it takes a lot of time and energy to eat the way you aspire. 'It's like another job you have to do after you come home from your job,' says Fung. She says that if you can afford it, buying precut vegetables that are bagged and washed can save time and make it just a little easier to cook at home. She also advises making one or two simple changes at a time if you're trying to improve your diet. 'Pick two things you want to change, and they have to be things that are changeable within your resources and that you can change for the long haul,' says Fung. 'Healthy dietary habits are never extreme.' She adds: 'Health is a long-term project.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Mass rollout of weight loss jabs begins on NHS today - are you eligible?
An NHS mass rollout of weight loss jabs Mounjaro on the NHS in England will begin on Monday as GPs are allowed to prescribe the drugs for the first time. Around 220,000 people with 'greatest need' are expected to receive Mounjaro, also known as tirzepatide and made by Lilly through the NHS over the next three years. Around 29% of the adult population in the UK is obese. The drug is an antidiabetic drug which lowers blood sugar levels and and slows down how quickly food is digested. From today, GPs in England will be allowed to prescribe Mounjaro to severely obese people who also suffer from a range of other health problems. Patients previously needed to access the drugs through a special weight loss service. But leading family doctors said some GPs have expressed concern about the additional workload linked to the rollout. Coming up on GMB 👇 📰 There are fears that the UK will face terror attacks as Iran vows revenge on America and its allies. 📰 The mass rollout of the weight-loss jab Mounjaro on the NHS in England begins today, but GPs and pharmacists warn of increased workloads and a lack of… — Good Morning Britain (@GMB) June 23, 2025 And pharmacy experts also said there could be pressure on supplies of the drug. In the first year of the programme, the drug will be offered to people with a body mass index (BMI) score of over 40 who have at least four other health problems linked to obesity, such as type 2 diabetes; high blood pressure; heart disease; and obstructive sleep apnoea. Estimates suggest around 1.5 million people in the UK are already taking weight loss drugs, which may have been prescribed through specialist weight loss services or via private prescription. Dr Claire Fuller, from NHS England, said: 'This is an important next step in the rollout of weight loss drugs, with community-based services now able to offer this treatment from today. 'We urgently need to address rising levels of obesity and prioritise support for those who are experiencing severe ill health – and greater access to weight loss drugs will make a significant difference to the lives of those people. 'These drugs are an important tool alongside the range of wraparound NHS support and advice on good nutrition and increasing physical activity, which will be vital in helping some people lose weight and reduce their risk of serious long-term conditions. 'While not everyone will be eligible for weight loss drugs, it's important that anyone who is worried about the impact of their weight on their health discusses the range of NHS support available with their healthcare professional.' Recommended reading: Mounjaro heatwave warning as temperatures soar Mounjaro warning for anyone planning a holiday When will Mounjaro be rolled out on the NHS? Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, said: 'While we recognise the potential benefits of weight loss drugs, we know many GPs are concerned about the implications of the rollout of weight loss drugs into general practice, both in terms of workload and training to appropriately initiate and manage these treatments. 'The college shares these concerns, which is why we were pleased NHS England suggested a phased roll-out of Mounjaro as a treatment for weight loss. As and when this is escalated, appropriate resourcing for general practice – including access to 'wraparound' services – and training for GPs must follow. She added: 'GPs and our teams are already working under intense workload and workforce pressures, and this must be factored into this rollout in order to guarantee it can be delivered safely. 'More widely, whilst weight loss medications have a lot of potential benefits for patients who are struggling to lose weight and who meet all the clinical criteria for a prescription, they mustn't be seen as a 'silver bullet' to aid weight loss. 'We also need to see a focus on prevention, stopping people becoming overweight in the first place so they don't require a medical intervention later.' Dr Hawthorne said there is no 'one size fits all approach' and that the rollout of the jabs should not 'come at the expense of other weight loss service'. She continued: 'The roll-out of weight loss medications in the NHS will need to be consistently evaluated to ensure that there is evidence that these prescriptions are of long-term benefit to patients.' Olivier Picard, chairman of the National Pharmacy Association, said: 'The demand for weight loss jabs continues to rise sharply, and more GPs have been directing patients back to pharmacies after initial inquiries, to access these treatments privately. 'As the NHS is now moving to implement National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) guidance, and tirzepatide becomes prescribable to more patients, we expect to see prescription volumes increase rapidly. 'However, NHS provision won't meet demand straight away, so we fully expect that many people will continue seeking it privately from a pharmacy. 'Pharmacists are experts in medication and many of us have lots of experience delivering weight loss injections as part of a package of care including lifestyle advice. 'We are well placed to help roll out weight loss treatment on the NHS, with the right funding to support it. 'The biggest concern we have is that prescribing these medications alone misses the point. 'They should be part of a comprehensive weight management strategy – combining lifestyle coaching, exercise, and nutritional guidance. In reality, many GPs lack the bandwidth to deliver the level of support needed to ensure proper understanding and follow-up. 'As a result, we could end up in a situation where patients are prescribed the medication, lose weight, and then experience rebound weight gain once the course ends – simply because the foundational lifestyle changes weren't addressed.'
