These drug stocks stand out for investors

Article Excerpt

We think the drug industry will enjoy great success over the next decade. But due to the nature of the business, results will vary widely and unpredictably from one drug company to another. A volatile market like the one we expect for drug stocks will include winners and losers. Here are two that we expect to be among the winners. ELI LILLY & CO. $150.96 (New York symbol LLY; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average) (www.lilly.com; Shares outstanding: 956.5 million; Market cap: $143.6 billion; Dividend yield: 2.0%) discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets human pharmaceutical products. In the three months ended June 30, 2020, Lilly’s revenue fell 2.4%, to $5.50 billion from $5.64 billion a year earlier. A reduction in new prescriptions (as fewer patients visit a doctor due to COVID-19) cut sales in the latest quarter by $250 million. Meanwhile, coronavirus-related stockpiling in the first quarter, which increased sales of medications, like diabetes medicine Trulicity and the psoriasis medicine Taltz, reversed in the second quarter. That hurt total…