Loss-making Lilly lowers outlook despite beating sales and profit predictions

US pharma major Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) beat analysts’ estimates with the revenue and earnings per share (EPS) figures reported in its first quarter results, but markets perhaps paid more attention to its quarterly loss and reduced 2017 net earnings forecast.

This reaction was suggested by the 2.5% decline in Lilly’s share price in the first hour of trading on Tuesday morning, when the company presented its quarterly results.

Quarterly revenue was reported as $5.23 billion, a 7% rise compared to 2016’s first quarter and ahead of the average analyst estimate of $5.22 billion. But Lilly recorded a first-quarter loss of $110.8 million, or $0.10 a share, compared with a profit of $440.1 million, or $0.41 per share, a year previously. That loss has been explained as being the result of the $960 million acquisition of CoLucid Pharmaceuticals, agreed in January.