Eli Lilly beats Q4 estimates on solid demand for weight-loss drug

Eli Lilly & Co (NYSE: LLY) is trading up in premarket on Tuesday after coming in ahead of Street estimates in its fiscal fourth quarter on a solid launch of Zepbound (weight-loss drug) and higher prices for Mounjaro (diabetes drug).

Eli Lilly's guidance for fiscal 2024

The pharmaceutical behemoth acknowledged higher manufacturing costs as a headwind but said higher prices helped push its gross margin up by 2.1% in the recently concluded quarter to 80.9% of revenue.

Lilly now forecasts its revenue to fall between $40.4 billion and $41.6 billion on up to $12.70 of adjusted EPS in fiscal 2024. Analysts, in comparison, were at $39.38 billion on $12.43 a share, respectively. David A. Ricks - its chief executive said in a press release today:

The New York listed firm was recently reported in talks with the German government to have its weight-loss drug included in the country’s public health coverage. Lilly stock at about $740 makes it the largest pharma company in the U.S.

Eli Lilly Q4 earnings snapshot

• Earned $2.19 billion versus the year-ago $1.94 billion
• Per-share earnings also climbed from $2.14 to $2.42
• Adjusted EPS printed at $2.49 as per the earnings report
• Revenue jumped 28% year-over-year to $9.35 billion
• Consensus was $2.22 a share on $8.93 billion in revenue

Zepbound generated about $176 million for Eli Lilly & Co in Q4 while Mounjaro brought in $2.21 billion. CEO Ricks also said on Tuesday: