Eli Lilly's 1st-qtr earnings miss, causing stock to fall

Shares of US pharma major Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) were down 2% in pre-market trading, after the company reported first-quarter 2016 financial results, with earnings missing expectations, though sales were better than analysts’ forecasts.

The company said first quarter net income came in at $440 million, or $0.41 per share, a year-on-year drop of 17%. Excluding special items, including costs of restructurings, Lilly earned $0.83 per share, below the average analyst estimate of $0.85 per share compiled by Thomson Reuters.

Total revenue rose 55 to $4.87 billion in the first quarter, just topping Wall Street expectations of $4.82 billion, boosted by sales of new diabetes treatment Trulicity (dulaglutide) and the company’s new cancer drug Cyramza (ramucirumab). The stronger dollar hurt the value of foreign sales in US currency terms. Excluding the currency impact, Lilly said sales would have been up 8%. Revenue in the USA increased 16% to $2.56 billion, while revenue outside the USA decreased 5% to $2.31 billion.