Shares of Eli Lilly & Co. LLY, +0.80% rallied 1.8% in premarket trading Thursday after the drug maker reported first-quarter profit and revenue that beat expectations, as better-than-forecast COVID-19 antibodies results offset a Trulicity miss. Net income rose to $1.90 billion, or $2.10 a share, from $1.36 billion, or $1.49 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share of $2.62 was above the FactSet consensus of $2.29. Revenue grew 14.8% to $7.81 billion, beating the FactSet consensus of $7.29 billion, as a 20% increase in volume was partially offset by a 3% decrease from lower prices. Trulicity revenue rose 19.9% to $1.74 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $1.80 billion, and COVID-19 antibodies revenue jumped 81.4% to $1.47 billion to beat expectations of $1.13 billion. For 2022, the company cut its adjusted EPS guidance range to $8.15 to $8.30 from $8.50 to $8.65 but raised its revenue guidance to $28.8 billion to $29.3 billion from $27.8 billion to $28.3 billion. The stock has gained 3.2% year to date through Wednesday while the S&P 500 SPX, +0.21% has dropped 12.2%.
