Indian pharmaceutical firm Cipla is open to a potential partnership with U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) to bring its obesity treatment drugs to India. During a recent conversation with Reuters, Cipla’s Global CEO, Umang Vohra, expressed his strong interest in deepening the company’s ties with Eli Lilly. Indeed, the two firms currently have a successful ongoing partnership involving diabetes medications.
Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound, which are drugs that were initially developed for type 2 diabetes, have also proven effective in weight management. This has caused global demand for them to skyrocket, and Cipla wants to capitalize by developing generic versions of these weight-loss drugs. With Lilly planning to launch Mounjaro in India by next year, Cipla’s established distribution network could play a crucial role.
Investor Sentiment for LLY Stock Is Currently Negative
Today’s news did little to help LLY’s share price, as it’s down over 1% at the time of writing. In fact, the sentiment among TipRanks investors is currently very negative. Out of the 728,786 portfolios tracked by TipRanks, 1.7% hold LLY stock. In addition, the average portfolio weighting allocated towards LLY among those who do have a position is 6.24%. This suggests that investors of the company are fairly confident about its future.
However, in the last 30 days, 2.2% of those holding the stock decreased their positions. As a result, the stock’s sentiment is below the sector average, as demonstrated in the following image:
Is LLY Stock a Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts remain bullish about LLY stock, with a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 16 Buys and three Holds. Year-to-date, LLY has increased by more than 31%, and the average LLY price target of $845.60 implies an upside potential of 10.78% from current levels.
