NEW YORK (AP) - Eli Lilly and Co. on Tuesday reported a surge in fourth-quarter profit on a boost in diabetes treatment sales.
The Indianapolis-based company saw profit rise 61 percent to $771.8 million, or 73 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for amortization costs and non-recurring costs, came to 95 cents per share.
The drugmaker’s revenue rose 7 percent to $5.76 billion. Diabetes treatments were the main contributors to the revenue gain. Sales of Trulicity more than doubled to $337 million, while sales of the key revenue driver Humalog rose 3 percent to $819.8 million.
Other strong revenue drivers included the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis, with 6 percent growth to $676.3 million. It is the company’s second best-seller.
Still Wall Street was mixed on the results. Profit fell short of expectations, with nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research, on average, looking for 99 cents per share in profit. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $5.55 billion in revenue.
For the year, the company reported profit of $2.74 billion, or $2.58 per share. Revenue was reported as $21.22 billion.
Lilly expects full-year earnings in the range of $4.05 to $4.15 per share, with revenue in the range of $21.8 billion to $22.3 billion.
Lilly shares have increased roughly 2 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has risen nearly 2 percent. The stock has fallen nearly 3 percent in the last 12 months.
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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (https://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on LLY at https://www.zacks.com/ap/LLY
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Keywords: Eli Lilly, Earnings Report
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