Every day, the sun rises on Wall Street, and a plethora of professional analysts wake to issue new opinions on stocks. Here at the Fool, we use our "This Just In" column to examine some of these picks -- and the track records of the firms behind them -- so individuals can make better investing decisions.
In addition to following professional banks, anyone can use Motley Fool CAPS to monitor the collective opinions of more than 115,000 investors, many of whom demonstrate better investing insight than published analysts do.
Enough top-performing CAPS investors have turned bullish on Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) recently to upgrade it from its long held three-star rank to a more formidable four stars. A total of 534 investors have given their opinion on Eli Lilly, with many of them offering analysis and commentary explaining the recent optimism.
Increased sales from key drugs Cymbalta and Cialis -- the latter competes against Pfizer’s (NYSE: PFE) Viagra and Bayer’s Levitra -- helped Eli Lilly to a 44% increase in second-quarter earnings, to $958.8 million. Investors also anxiously await blood-thinner Prasugrel’s FDA approval in September, which is expected to compete with Plavix, sold by Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) and Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY).
On the down side, Eli Lilly's anchor antipsychotic drug Zyprexa continues to fare well, but it will face some new competition this year from generic versions of Johnson & Johnson’s (NYSE: JNJ) Risperdal. And the company was floored earlier this year when the FDA rejected an injection version of Zyprexa, though daily tablet sales remain unaffected by the decision.
With current blockbusters going off patent, Eli Lilly wants to control costs and move drugs to market faster. This motivated a $1.6 billion deal with Covance and a recent boost to its animal health division by acquiring the Posilac cow hormone from Monsanto (NYSE: MON) for $300 million. Although the U.S. patent expires this year, manufacturing patents on the drug remain, making it difficult for animal-health competitors like Schering-Plough (NYSE: SGP) to move in. With prospects looking up to replace threatened revenue, nearly 90% of CAPS members rating Eli Lilly expect it to outperform the market.
To see what the very best CAPS analysts are saying now about Eli Lilly -- as well as other winning stocks they are picking -- head on over to CAPS and have a look.
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