Lilly soars after animal drug spinoff

Article Excerpt

On September 21, 2018, Eli Lilly set up its animal-health business as a separate company called Elanco Animal Health and sold 19.8% of its shares through an initial public offering at $24 each. The company disposed of its remaining 80.2% stake in Elanco in March 2019. Under the terms of the deal, Lilly investors exchanged roughly 65.0 million shares for 293.29 million Elanco shares. The spinoff has worked out well for Lilly, which has soared over 750%, thanks to the launch of its Mounjaro drug for diabetes and its related Zepbound weight-loss treatment. It also just won regulatory approval for a promising new Alzheimer’s drug. On the other hand, Elanco is down 38% since it became a public company. Elanco, however, is now taking steps to improve its performance, including selling smaller operations to pay down its debt. The involvement of an activist investor should also spur the stock. ELI LILLY & CO. $905 is a buy. The company (New York symbol LLY; Manufacturing Sector;…