Jim Cramer Says He Would Prefer Eli Lilly (LLY) Over Regeneron Even at $900

We recently published a list of Jim Cramer’s Latest Calls: Top 10 Stocks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Eli Lilly And Co (NYSE:LLY) stands against other stocks highlighted in Jim Cramer’s latest calls.

Jim Cramer in a recent program talked about Bitcoin and reminded investors that he has always believed in the cryptocurrency.

“I want to discuss Bitcoin, really. I do—not to the detriment of stocks but in addition to stocks. I come to praise Bitcoin, not buy it. First, let’s dispel the idea that I’ve never believed in Bitcoin. Now, if you search YouTube, you can see that I first bought Bitcoin on September 15, 2020, when it was at just over $10,000.”

Cramer said he likes the idea of Bitcoin being the store of value and said he always recommended investors to allocate 10% of their portfolio to the currency. However, he again urged investors to look to stocks for the rest of their portfolios.

“I heard Fed Chief J. Powell talk about how he believes people are buying Bitcoin as a store of value, like gold, because there’s not much transaction done in Bitcoin. I’ve always endorsed keeping up to 10% of your portfolio in gold as a kind of insurance against the world’s lunacy. But for years now, I’ve also been saying Bitcoin is a fine alternative to gold for that 10% position. Why not?

I think the federal budget deficit is at impossible levels…Sure, you might have been all in on Bitcoin. You know what? Terrific. Me too. But what if I told you there are indeed other ideas hidden in plain sight in the stock market? Ideas that you could have owned with the other 90% of your portfolio that wasn’t Bitcoin.”

Cramer then mentioned a few stocks that have posted dramatic gains since their IPOs to show investors the power of stock investing.

READ ALSO: Jim Cramer’s Latest Lightning Round: 11 Stocks to Watch and Jim Cramer on AMD and Other Stocks

For this article, we watched the latest programs of Jim Cramer and picked 10 stocks he recently talked about. With each stock we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

Jim Cramer Says He Would Prefer Eli Lilly (LLY) Over Regeneron Even at $900

An array of pharmaceutical pills with the company’s logo on the bottle.

Eli Lilly And Co (NYSE:LLY)

Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 106

Jim Cramer was recently asked about  Regeneron during a program on CNBC. He said he prefers Eli Lilly And Co (NYSE:LLY).

“Regeneron is a quandary. I’ve got to tell you, I expected sales to be better, but they’re not. I don’t want to give up on a stock down at $749, but I do prefer Eli Lilly And Co (NYSE:LLY) even at $900 because, you know, I think that $900 is the next stop for Lilly at $813. I’m not sure what the next stop for Regeneron is.”

LLY shares fell after Q3 results at the end of October. There were several points in Eli Lilly And Co (NYSE:LLY)’s report that spooked investors. Management revised down the upper range of Lilly’s revenue guidance, citing “inventory decreases in the wholesaler channel” for key growth products Mounjaro and Zepbound in Q3. The updated outlook reflects ongoing supply chain challenges as these products face unprecedented demand.

However, Eli Lilly And Co (NYSE:LLY) bulls believe long-term catalysts for the stock are well intact.

To meet strong demand for its tirzepatide products, Lilly introduced new vial formats for Zepbound and Mounjaro, which improve accessibility and reduce supply strain on injection pens. The company has also been enhancing its go-to-market strategy, securing extensive U.S. health plan coverage for Zepbound and exploring expanded tirzepatide indications, including Medicare-eligible treatments like obstructive sleep apnea.

Another key catalyst comes from oncology. Eli Lilly And Co (NYSE:LLY) is seeing robust demand for its non-incretin medicines, notably Verzenio, which grew 32% year-over-year in Q3, aided by higher U.S. prices and a 70% adoption rate in metastatic breast cancer treatments. To further capitalize on Verzenio’s success, Lilly is testing it in combination with Imlunestrant in a Phase III trial, aiming to enhance patient outcomes and address current inefficiencies in metastatic ER+ breast cancer care.

Madison Sustainable Equity Fund stated the following regarding Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) in its Q3 2024 investor letter:

“Alphabet Inc.,Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY), Qualcomm Incorporated, Microsoft Corporation, and Apple Inc. were the largest detractors. After first half strength, Eli Lilly has traded in a range this quarter, despite dramatically raising revenues and earnings following their second quarter report. There is a lot of noise in the Diabetes-Obesity space as many companies are looking for opportunities to get into the market, which is expected to exceed $100 billion in revenues in 2030. We have not seen any competitor data that would dethrone Novo Nordisk or Lilly but are watching carefully. Manufacturing capacity is a key barrier to entry and Lilly and Novo have locked up capacity for the next several years.”

Overall, LLY ranks 2nd on our list of stocks highlighted in Jim Cramer’s latest calls. While we acknowledge the potential of LLY, our conviction lies in the belief that under the radar AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than LLY but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

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