Eli Lilly (LLY) CEO David Ricks got a 10% pay raise in 2024, bringing his annual compensation close to $30 million, among the highest in the pharmaceutical industry.
Elevate Your Investing Strategy:
- Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence.
Ricks’ total compensation last year reached $29.2 million, according to a proxy statement from the pharma giant. That’s up from $26.6 million in 2023. When he became CEO in 2017, Ricks’ annual compensation started at $15 million, meaning it nearly doubled in seven years.
The higher pay comes amid a surge in demand for Eli Lilly’s weight-loss drug Zepbound and as the company prepares to launch several new prescription drugs, including a once-a-day weight-loss pill that’s expected to give the company’s sales an even bigger boost.
Stock Performance
Eli Lilly has certainly seen explosive growth in recent years, with its blockbuster diabetes and weight-loss drugs, Mounjaro and Zepbound, becoming global bestsellers. Mounjaro brought in $11.5 billion in sales in 2024, while Zepbound generated $4.9 billion in annual revenue. Overall, Eli Lilly’s total sales last year across all its drugs amounted to $45 billion.
The company projects that sales this year will reach between $58 billion and $61 billion. However, despite the surge in sales, LLY stock has underperformed the market. Over the last 12 months, Eli Lilly’s share price is flat (up 0.82%), versus a 17% gain in the benchmark S&P 500 index.
Still, with a market cap of $754 billion, Eli Lilly is now the most valuable healthcare company in the world, and many analysts are pounding the table on the stock ahead of its second-quarter financial results that are scheduled to be released on Aug. 7.
Is LLY Stock a Buy?
The stock of Eli Lilly has a consensus Strong Buy rating among 18 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 16 Buy and two Hold recommendations issued in the last 12 months. The average LLY price target of $1,030.14 implies 26.44% upside from current levels.
