Eli Lilly and Company (LLY) Gets Upgraded to Buy From Hold by Freedom Capital

Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is one of the best medical research stocks to buy according to hedge funds. On February 10, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) was upgraded to Buy from Hold by Freedom Capital, with the firm raising the price target on the stock to $1,200 from $1,050. The rating update came after what the firm called “another quarter that beat even the high-end of revenue and EPS estimates,” driven by record GLP-1 sales. It further supported the optimistic rating with the company’s “dominant position” in the GLP-1 market, along with the long-term potential from an oral drug launch.

In another development, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) announced entry into a definitive agreement to acquire Orna Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company involved in engineering immune cells in vivo. Management reported that Orna is advancing a new class of therapeutics utilizing engineered circular RNA paired with novel lipid nanoparticles to allow the patient’s own body to generate cell therapies that can treat underlying disease. Its lead program is ORN-252, which is a clinical trial-ready, CD19-targeting in vivo Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell therapy designed to treat B cell-driven autoimmune diseases.

The terms of the agreement entail that Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) will acquire Orna, and the latter’s shareholders could receive up to $2.4 billion in cash, inclusive of an upfront payment and subsequent payments upon attainment of certain clinical development milestones.

Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) develops, manufactures, discovers, and sells pharmaceutical products. These products span oncology, diabetes, immunology, neuroscience, and other therapies.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.