** Brokerage Jefferies says investor sentiment on obesity stocks is "mixed" at best, but hopes that positive data from Eli Lilly's LLY.N oral obesity drug will bring investors back into this space

** LLY shares fell 8% after company's Q3 weight-loss drug sales missed estimates, but have since recovered; its stock is up 19% YTD

** LLY is expected to report late-stage data on its experimental obesity drug, orforglipron, by April

** "We would like to see positive LLY orfo data help drive the obesity comps back up and bring investors back into this space" - Jefferies

** Outside LLY as the leader, Jefferies says it likes Amgen AMGN.O and Structure Therapeutics GPCR.O, which are both expected to report data on their experimental drugs in H2

** AMGN up 11.7%, GPCR down 46.6% and LLY up 14.9% in the past 12 months

(Reporting by Christy Santhosh and Siddhi Mahatole)

((Christy.Santhosh@thomsonreuters.com))