PGIM Jennison Health Sciences Fund released its second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund modestly underperformed the S&P 1500 Health Care Index in the quarter which declined 1.1%. Security selection within pharmaceuticals, MedTech, and health care provides & services contributed the most value during the quarter, while stock selection within Biotechnology was largely detracted. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
PGIM Jennison Health Sciences Fund highlighted stocks like Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is a pharmaceutical company, headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The one-month return of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) was 7.37%, and its shares gained 149.52% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On October 2, 2024, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) stock closed at $891.07 per share with a market capitalization of $802.343 billion.
PGIM Jennison Health Sciences Fund stated the following regarding Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is a diversified biopharmaceutical company with core franchises in Diabetes, Obesity, Immunology, Neurodegeneration, and Oncology. The company is one of the two global leaders in diabetes with blockbuster products in Trulicity and recently launched Mounjaro (tirzepatide) to serve this large underserved market. To date, the Mounjaro launch is the strongest for any diabetes drug ever launched, which we attribute to off label usage in the obesity indication as well as on label use in diabetes. We believe the tirzepatide (the generic name for Mounjaro) franchise is also uniquely positioned to grow substantially from here thanks to its recent approval for obesity. To that note, in late 2023, Eli Lilly received approval for tirzepatide in obesity and is commercializing it for obesity under a new brand name, Zepbound. While still early in the launch, uptake has been extremely strong, exceeding that of both Wegovy and Mounjaro at the same timepoint in their launches. While Alzheimer’s Disease has been a tough market for drug developers, Eli Lilly has breakthrough designation from the food and drug administration (FDA) for donanemab and recently presented Phase III pivotal trial data that positions donanemab as the most efficacious drug in the class. In June, the FDA advisory committee voted unanimously in favor of donanemab as an effective treatment where the benefits outweigh the risks, praising the therapy as innovative. Donanemab was then approved under the brand name Kisunla in early July. Eli Lilly also has exciting franchises in dermatology, immunology, and oncology that are starting to add meaningfully to growth. With a proven history of strong commercial execution and one of the highest research and development (R&D) success rates in the industry, we see opportunity for continued success. With a lack of meaningful patent expirations for the rest of the decade. Eli Lilly is uniquely positioned amongst its larger-cap peers. Recent positive performance has been driven by the continued strong growth of Mounjaro and Zepbound, which led to a big guidance raise on the 1Q call, an unusual action for Eli Lilly this early in the year, which speaks to their confidence in the strong trends they are seeing.”
An array of pharmaceutical pills with the company’s logo on the bottle.
Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is on 19th position on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 100 hedge fund portfolios held Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) at the end of the second quarter which was 109 in the previous quarter. Eli Lilly and Company’s (NYSE:LLY) second quarter revenue increased 36% year-over-year. While we acknowledge the potential of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we discussed Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) and shared the list of best healthcare stocks to buy according to hedge funds. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.