Pharma parent and spinoff are buys

Article Excerpt

ELI LILLY & CO. $115 (New York symbol LLY; Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 920.8 million; Market cap: $105.9 billion; Dividend yield: 2.2%; Takeover Target Rating: Low; www.lilly.com) is a leading developer of prescription drugs. Its top-selling products include Humalog (diabetes), Alimta (lung cancer) and Cialis (erectile dysfunction). On September 21, 2018, Lilly set up its animal-health business as a separate company called Elanco Animal Health Inc. (see right) 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. They are not liable for capital gains taxes until they sell their new shares. In addition, Lilly realized a $3.7 billion gain on the transaction. Sine the Elanco split, the company has acquired Loxo Oncology Inc. for $6.92 billion. Loxo has several promising cancer treatments in its development pipeline. If you exclude…