Eli Lilly's GLP-1 medications may have become its main event, but that success is fueling what comes next-and that trajectory has even the most cautious analysts taking notice.
One of Wall Street's last holdouts, Berenberg analyst Kerry Holford upgraded Lilly to Buy from Hold while hiking her price target on the stock from $1,220 to $1,400. Shares rose 0.7% to $1,147 on Tuesday.
Though she conceded that expectations for Lilly to maintain its obesity lead are sky-high, Holford sees room for the drugmaker to beat its full-year guidance, which includes an ambitious revenue target between $85 billion and $87 billion.
Lilly is often chalked up to being a weight-loss drugmaker, but there's more to the company. Holford highlighted the breadth of Lilly's pipeline and strong growth profile as she argued that shares were worthy of an even loftier valuation premium.
Investors are already paying up for that strength. Through Monday's close, Lilly traded at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 26.08, comfortably ahead of the S&P 500 at 19.23. It also commands a markup over sector peers. The iShares U.S. Pharmaceuticals exchange-traded fund, which counts Lilly among its top holdings alongside other large-cap drugmakers, carried a forward P/E of 17.96 as of Friday.
The bullish call isn't surprising given Wall Street's overwhelming Buy rating on the stock. What's notable is the case for looking beyond weight-loss drugs, as Holford argues the market is underestimating just how effectively GLP-1 profits are fueling the rest of Lilly's pipeline.
Mounjaro and Zepbound have captured so much attention that they threaten to reduce Lilly-one of the largest and most diversified drugmakers-to a one-trick pony. Doubling down on the same space doesn't help either; Lilly continues to pour resources into next-generation weight-loss and diabetes therapies to defend its dominant market position.
A cornerstone of Lilly's pipeline is retatrutide, a once-weekly injectable that targets three distinct hormone receptors. On Tuesday, the company teased upcoming clinical data showing how the drug helped patients drop weight while simultaneously reducing their blood sugar levels.
However, the windfall from Lilly's GLP-1 medications is fueling investments across other areas of its business. Success in obesity and diabetes has bankrolled an aggressive acquisition spree headlined by its $7 billion purchase of Kelonia Therapeutics, just one in a recent string of transactions this year.
In 2026 alone, Lilly has struck deals to acquire immunology drugs and experimental vaccines while deepening its push into CAR T-cell therapy, a promising new approach to targeting and fighting disease by reprogramming a patient's own immune cells.
Lilly's expansion comes from a position of strength rather than defense. While industry peers face shakier footing due to imminent patent cliffs, the world's largest drugmaker remains well-protected through the middle of the next decade.
As Holford noted, many of the new additions to Lilly's pipeline "have multibillion-dollar sales potential and offer important diversification optionality," positioning the pharmaceutical giant to sustain its momentum long after the weight-loss boom peaks.