A $1,000 Investment in Eli Lilly Became $18,637. The Obesity Boom Changed Everything Chris Lange Fri, October 16, 2026 at 2:15 PM EDT 4 min read LLY +0.15% ^GSPC -1.24% SPY -1.23% Explore stocks on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
A $1,000 investment in Eli Lilly 10 years ago is worth $18,637 today, a 1,764% return fueled by tirzepatide capturing 6 in 10 U.S. obesity prescriptions.
Lilly crushed the S&P 500 at every time horizon, delivering 5x the index's 10-year return while the SPY gained a comparatively modest 263%.
Pricing erosion cut realized prices 13% in Q2 2026, but a 60% volume surge and 86% gross margin keep the bull case intact.
Just released. Our analysts combed the entire stock market and named the ten best stocks to buy right now, and Eli Lilly didn't make the cut. Enter your email to see the names that beat LLY. The report is free. Enter your email and see if any of your stocks made the cut.
Ten years ago, Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) was a steady Indianapolis drugmaker known for insulin and a dependable dividend. In its 150th year, it now carries a market cap of roughly $1.117 trillion. The incretin era rewrote the company.
Tirzepatide drove most of that change. Lilly sells it as Mounjaro for type 2 diabetes and as Zepbound for obesity, which launched in late 2023. In Q2 2026 the pair generated $14.9 billion in revenue, and Lilly wrote roughly 6 out of 10 U.S. obesity prescriptions.
Lilly also kept building. The FDA approved its oral GLP-1 pill Foundayo in Q1 2026, and the company announced new plants from Indiana to Texas. Adding Mounjaro to China's reimbursement list helped drive 172% international growth for the drug. FY2025 revenue reached $65.18 billion, up 44.7%.
S&P 500 (same period): $1,160.30 (16.03%)
S&P 500 (same period): $1,731 (73.1%)
Why Didn't LLY Make The Top 10 List?
24/7 Wall St has helped investors make money for over two decades, and our top analysts just finished ranking the definitive Top 10 Stocks To Buy Now. Not the ten biggest companies. Not the ten everyone is arguing about. The ten best stocks to buy right now.
The report is free, and you can see why we think each stock is a top investment today.
Enter Your Email and See the Ten →
S&P 500 (same period): $3,634 (263.4%)
These figures reflect share price growth only. Lilly lifted its quarterly dividend from $0.51 in 2016 to $1.73 in 2026, so dividends received over the decade would add to the total.
The 10-year result is roughly 5.1 times what the S&P 500 delivered, and Lilly beat the index at every horizon. Holding still took nerve. Shares fell about 22% between February 4 and April 30, 2026, then recovered to $1,251.61. Luck mattered too. A 2016 buyer had no way of knowing how large the obesity drug market would become.
The bull case rests on retatrutide and Foundayo extending the franchise. Retatrutide has a complete Phase 3 package, and Lilly plans a U.S. submission in Q1 2027. Management also says obesity treatment remains at "mid-single digit" utilization. In Q2 2026, revenue rose 47.7% to $22.97 billion, and full-year guidance moved up to $85.0 billion to $87.0 billion.
The bear case centers on pricing erosion outrunning volume. Realized prices fell 13% in Q2 2026, and Mounjaro plus Zepbound still account for most of Lilly's revenue. Acquired IPR&D charges of $3.03 per share also cut into Q2 earnings.
So far, volume has the edge. A 60% jump in volume is more than offsetting the price cuts, and an 85.8% gross margin leaves plenty of cushion. Investors researching the stock should weigh how they would handle another 20%-plus pullback.
If you have cash sitting in your account right now, give this two minutes. After more than two decades of helping investors beat the market, our top analysts at 24/7 Wall St. put together a definitive report on the Top 10 Stocks To Buy Today. And LLY wasn't one of them.
They combed the entire market. It's not 10 ideas, not 10 stocks everyone is talking about, it's what their research points to as the 10 best stocks to buy right now, and it's free. Read more here and see which stocks made the list -->>
Contact editorial@247wallst.com for any questions or corrections.
