Eli Lilly Stock Soars, Pulling iShares Pharma ETF Higher

LLY surges 18% on weight loss drug sales, Novo Nordisk stock also jumps.

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Reviewed by: Lisa Barr
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Edited by: Lisa Barr

Eli Lilly stock jumped 18% as sales of a diabetes drug beat expectations, boosting the prices of pharmaceutical industry ETFs including iShares’ IHE fund. 

Lilly shares, which had gained 50% this year before today, rose on the strength of sales of Mounjaro. That drug is widely expected to be approved for weight loss. Novo Nordisk, which also has a promising weight loss drug, jumped 18% today.  

The iShares U.S. Pharmaceuticals ETF (IHE) has a 22% stake in Lilly stock, worth $83.5 million, the largest percentage among all exchange-traded funds, according to etf.com data. The fund ETF has dropped 2.4% this year. The largest holder by number of shares is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), with 8.88 million shares. SPY dropped 1.1% today, in line with the decline in the S&P 500 index.  

Other pharma-focused funds jumped today. The Direxion Daily Pharmaceutical & Medical Bull 3X Shares (PILL) rose 5.2% at midday. The Invesco Dynamic Pharmaceuticals ETF (PJP), with a 6.3% Lilly allocation, added 1.2%, while the SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals ETF (XPH), which allocates 4.2% of its assets to Lilly, rose 1.8% 

Eli Lilly Stock Widely Held in ETFs 

About 66.3 million Eli Lilly & Co. shares are held in 332 U.S.-traded ETFs. On average, U.S. exchange-traded funds allocate 1.63% of LLY to their portfolios. 

The best-performing fund in the past 12 months with LLY as a holding is the Fidelity Growth Opportunities ETF (FGRO), with a return of 25.48%. 

Novo Nordisk and Lilly are top holdings in the VanEck Pharmaceutical ETF (PPH). That fund rose 2.1% today. Both companies’ weight loss drugs are being tested to find if they improve cardiovascular health. 

 

Contact Ron Day at [email protected] or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter at @RonDayETF  

Ron Day is deputy managing editor at etf.com. He covered business and financial news at Bloomberg News for 20 years, was senior editor at ESG news outlet Karma Impact, and covered general news at several New Jersey daily papers. Day's freelance work has been published in AARP.com, Investopedia.com and BigThink.com.