Eli Lilly and Company LLY reported first-quarter 2025 adjusted earnings per share (“EPS”) of $3.34, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.52 per share. Earnings rose 29% year over year.
Adjusted earnings included an acquired in-process research and development (IPR&D) charge of $1.72 per share compared with 10 cents in the year-ago quarter.
Revenues of $12.73 billion rose 45% year over year driven by strong sales of Lilly’s popular tirzepatide medicines, diabetes drug Mounjaro and weight loss medicine, Zepbound. Total revenues beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $12.62 billion. (Find the latest earnings estimates and surprises on Zacks Earnings Calendar.)
Revenues in the quarter also benefited from a one-time payment of $370 million from partner Boehringer Ingelheim due to an amendment in their collaboration for Jardiance.
LLY’s Mounjaro and Zepbound Sales Outperform
Mounjaro recorded sales of $3.84 billion during the quarter, up 113% year over year. The reported sales figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.75 billion as well as our model estimate of $3.82 billion.
Zepbound recorded sales of $2.31 billion in the quarter compared with $1.91 billion in the previous quarter, driven by increased demand, partially offset by lower pricing. Zepbound revenues beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.27 billion as well as our model estimate of $2.19 billion.
Lilly’s tirzepatide medicines face strong competition from Novo Nordisk’s NVO GLP-drug semaglutide, which is approved as Ozempic pre-filled pen and Rybelsus oral tablet for type II diabetes and as Wegovy injection for weight management.
Novo Nordisk is due to report its first-quarter results on May 7. Revenue growth in the first quarter of 2025 is expected to have been driven primarily by strong demand for Ozempic, Rybelsus and Wegovy.
LLY’s Key Drugs’ Sales Numbers
Among the growth products, Trulicity generated revenues worth $1.1 billion, down 25% year over year. Sales of Trulicity were in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Our estimate was pegged at $1.17 billion.
Jardiance sales rose 48% to $1.01 billion, including the one-time payment received from partner Boehringer Ingelheim, which benefited international revenues. Jardiance’s U.S. revenues declined 16%. Jardiance significantly beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $675.0 million as well as our model estimate of $775.8 million.
Taltz brought in sales of $761.9 million, up 30% year over year. Taltz beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $663 million as well as our model estimate of $659.0 million.
Verzenio generated sales of $1.16 billion in the reported quarter, up 10% year over year, as increased demand and higher realized prices were partially offset by unfavorable wholesaler buying patterns and competitive dynamics in the United States and currency headwinds in international markets. Verzenio sales missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.25 billion as well as our model estimate of $1.23 billion.
Emgality generated revenues of $124.6 million in the quarter, down 45% year over year. Olumiant (baricitinib) generated sales of $228.7 million, up 5% on a year-over-year basis.
Among the newer drugs, Jaypirca recorded $92.0 million in sales, up 84% year over year. Omvoh and Ebglyss recorded sales of $37.2 million and $60.2 million, respectively, in the quarter, compared with $20.4 million and $56.9 million, respectively, in the previous quarter.
Sales of new Alzheimer’s drug Kisunla were $21.5 million in the first quarter compared with $7.9 million in the previous quarter.
Lilly maintained its sales guidance for 2025 while lowering its earnings expectations to account for the acquired IPR&D charges incurred in the first quarter of 2025.
In 2025, Lilly expects to record revenues in the range of $58.0 billion to $61.0 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 32%.
The earnings per share guidance was lowered from a range of $22.50 to $24.00 to $20.78 to $22.28 per share. The Zacks Consensus Estimate stands at $22.43 per share.
Our Take on LLY’s Q1 Results
Lilly’s first-quarter results were mixed as the company missed estimates for earnings but beat the same for sales. Sales of Lilly’s key drugs, Mounjaro, Zepbound, Jardiance, Taltz beat estimates while others like Verzenio missed expectations. Lilly’s new products also contributed to sales growth. Trulicity sales continued to decline in the quarter.
Despite the better-than-expected sales performance, Lilly’s shares were down almost 5% in pre-market trading due to the EPS miss and the earnings guidance cut.
Lilly’s stock also took a hit as CVS Caremark, a major pharmacy benefit manager announced that it is excluding Zepbound from its preferred drug list while retaining NVO’s Wegovy, effective from July 1.
Lilly’s stock has risen 16.7% so far this year against an increase of 3.5% for the industry.
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Sales of Mounjaro and Zepbound were below expectations in the second half of 2024 hurt by slower-than-expected growth and unfavorable channel dynamics. However, in line with the company’s expectations, sales of Mounjaro and Zepbound picked up in the first quarter of 2025, driven by launches of the drugs in new international markets and improved supply from ramped-up production.
Lilly and Novo Nordisk are presently dominating the obesity market with Zepbound and Wegovy (semaglutide), respectively. Though competition is heating up in the diabetes and obesity space, Lilly is investing broadly in obesity and has several new molecules currently in clinical development to further strengthen its position in the rapidly growing market. Earlier this month, Lilly announced positive data from a phase III study evaluating its next-generation once-daily oral GLP-1 agonist, orforglipron, in patients with type II diabetes and obesity. In the study, the oral pill performed on par with the NVO’s Ozempic in reducing both weight and blood sugar levels in patients with type II diabetes.
Lilly said its earnings guidance was based on the tariffs already in place and does not reflect any impact from potential tariffs on pharmaceutical imports. Most large drugmakers have provided an estimate of the potential impact of tariffs and trade policy changes on their costs. While J&J expects $400 million in costs from tariffs implemented to date, Merck MRK and Pfizer PFE estimate this cost to be approximately $200 million and $150 million, respectively.
Though pharmaceuticals have been exempted in the first round of reciprocal tariffs, they could well be Trump’s target in the next round, considering the President’s goal to shift pharmaceutical production back to the United States, mostly from European and Asian countries. Though the Trump administration has implemented a 90-day pause on all trading partners, excluding China, when imposed, tariffs on pharmaceutical imports can lead to potential disruptions to global supply chains and increased production costs.
However, none of these drugmakers provided any estimate for the potential impact of future tariffs on pharma imports, which are rumored to be around 25%. In fact, Pfizer’s CEO, Albert Bourla, said on the first-quarter call that tariffs on pharma imports are unlikely. Both Merck and Pfizer said that the additional tariffs on pharmaceutical imports, if levied, would be manageable.
LLY’s Zacks Rank
Eli Lilly currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks (Strong Buy) here.
Eli Lilly and Company Price and Consensus
Eli Lilly and Company Price and Consensus
Eli Lilly and Company price-consensus-chart | Eli Lilly and Company Quote
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