Breakingviews - Obesity giants will begin $80 bln M&A face-off
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: Dec 17 2024
0mins
Source: Reuters
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk's Growth: Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are expected to lead a significant acquisition spree by 2025, fueled by their successful weight-loss drugs, which will generate around $80 billion in cash by 2028. Both companies face pressure to invest wisely to avoid overpaying as competition in the obesity market increases.
Strategic Options for Expansion: Novo Nordisk may consider acquiring new promising obesity treatments or diversifying into fast-growing sectors like autoimmune diseases, while Eli Lilly has already begun its expansion with a recent $3.2 billion acquisition. The competitive landscape could lead to bidding wars, raising the risk of overvaluation in any potential mergers and acquisitions.
Analyst Views on LLY
Wall Street analysts forecast LLY stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for LLY is 1192 USD with a low forecast of 950.00 USD and a high forecast of 1500 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
20 Analyst Rating
18 Buy
2 Hold
0 Sell
Strong Buy
Current: 1087.380
Low
950.00
Averages
1192
High
1500
Current: 1087.380
Low
950.00
Averages
1192
High
1500
About LLY
Eli Lilly and Company is a medicine company, which discovers, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells pharmaceutical products worldwide. Its cardiometabolic health products include Basaglar; Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humalog U-100, Humalog U-200, Humalog Mix 50/50, insulin lispro, and others; Humulin, Humulin 70/30, and others; Jardiance; Mounjaro; Trulicity; Zepbound; VERVE-102; VERVE-201, and VERVE-301. Its oncology products include Cyramza, Erbitux, Tyvyt, and Verzenio. Its immunology products include Ebglyss, Olumiant, Omvoh, and Taltz. Its neuroscience products include Emgality and Kisunla. The Company is also engaged in radiopharmaceutical discovery, development, and manufacturing efforts, and clinical and pre-clinical radioligand therapies in development for the treatment of cancer. It is also developing an oral small molecule inhibitor of a4b7 integrin for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). It is evaluating its novel gene therapy candidate, ixoberogene soroparvovec.
About the author

Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.







