Critique of Pharmacy Benefit Managers: Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks criticized pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) for inflating insulin prices, claiming they profit from the difference between high list prices and low net prices, which harms uninsured patients.
Response to Price Inflation: Ricks noted that despite Lilly's efforts to introduce a low-cost insulin option, PBMs resisted these changes, prompting the company to create LillyDirect, a direct-to-consumer platform to bypass the PBM system.
Industry Support Against PBMs: Ricks' views align with those of industry disruptors like Mark Cuban, who also condemned PBMs for their role in escalating healthcare costs, indicating a growing challenge to the PBM business model.
Eli Lilly's Stock Performance: Following these developments, Eli Lilly's stock has shown positive performance, closing higher and reflecting a strong price trend over the year, despite a poor value ranking.
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
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.
18 Buy
2 Hold
0 Sell
Strong Buy
Current: 1078.520
Low
950.00
Averages
1192
High
1500
Current: 1078.520
Low
950.00
Averages
1192
High
1500
Guggenheim
Buy
maintain
2026-01-20
New
Reason
Guggenheim
Price Target
AI Analysis
2026-01-20
New
maintain
Buy
Reason
Guggenheim lowered the firm's price target on Eli Lilly to $1,161 from $1,163 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares after updating the firm's model ahead of Q4 results following checks with investor relations and recent management commentary.
UBS
Michael Yee
NULL
to
Buy
initiated
2026-01-06
Reason
UBS
Michael Yee
Price Target
2026-01-06
initiated
NULL
to
Buy
Reason
UBS analyst Michael Yee assumed coverage of Eli Lilly with a Buy rating with a price target of $1,250, up from $1,080. The firm said the Buy rating and new price target are supported by continued execution and leadership in obesity. The firm added that it sees a clear path to 2026+ obesity growth and upside to estimates on the obesity franchise, and believes investors can buy Eli Lilly ahead of the orforglipron launch, which could happen sooner than expected.
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H.C. Wainwright
H.C. Wainwright
Buy
maintain
$102
2025-12-18
Reason
H.C. Wainwright
H.C. Wainwright
Price Target
$102
2025-12-18
maintain
Buy
Reason
H.C. Wainwright notes that this morning, Eli Lilly (LLY) announced positive topline results from the Phase 3 ATTAIN-MAINTAIN trial, which the firm believes represents an important inflection point for the obesity landscape. The data highlights the ability to transition patients from injectable therapy to oral treatment for long-term weight maintenance and, in Wainwright's view, materially de-risk Viking's (VKTX) oral VK2735 program and its ongoing maintenance dosing strategy. Further, the firm believes this helps reinforce the commercial viability of an oral maintenance approach as these results de-risk Viking's approach by validating that oral therapy can sustain prior injectable-driven weight loss. Wainwright has a Buy rating on Viking Therapeutics with a price target of $102 on the shares.
Daiwa
Narumi Nakagiri
Neutral
to
Buy
upgrade
$1,230
2025-12-16
Reason
Daiwa
Narumi Nakagiri
Price Target
$1,230
2025-12-16
upgrade
Neutral
to
Buy
Reason
Daiwa analyst Narumi Nakagiri upgraded Eli Lilly to Buy from Neutral with a $1,230 price target.
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.
