We recently compiled a list of the 20 High Growth Mega Cap Stocks You Can Buy And Hold For Next 5 Years. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) stands against the other high growth mega cap stocks.

Exactly 5 years ago, the world struggled to deal with a black swan event: the COVID-19 pandemic. There was so much uncertainty that people didn’t even know if they’d be alive in the next few weeks, let alone figure out where the market was heading. Anyone who invested in the S&P 5 years ago would have gained 83%. If you had bought at the exact bottom, you’d have gained twice that amount.

What the above proves is that the present isn’t necessarily an indicator of what the future holds. All companies that had their workflows disrupted have recovered, some more than others. Some companies have strengthened their supply chains. Others have improved their work-from-home capabilities. Industries like airlines and restaurants have modified their business models to cater to the new dynamics.

These companies have been able to deal with the changing dynamics because of their financial strength and innovation. A company’s past performance and its finances give a good idea of whether it will be able to survive bad times. That’s why when we look at the best mega-cap stocks to hold for the next 5 years, we look at how well they have grown in the last 5 years.

To come up with our list of top 20 mega-cap stocks to hold for the next 5 years, we considered stocks with a market cap of at least $200 billion and a 5-year sales growth rate of at least 10%.

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

Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) 

Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is a developer, explorer, and marketer of human pharmaceuticals. The company offers a wide range of products including Humalog, Zepbound for obesity, oncology products, Olumiant for rheumatoid arthritis, Basaglar, Cymbalta for depressive disorder, and other products. The company has grown its revenue by 15.54% over the last 5 years.

The company entered into a global licensing deal with South Korea's OliX Pharmaceuticals that could be valued at up to $630 million. As per the agreement, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) will offer financial assistance for the successful completion of the phase 1 trial of the company’s experimental MASH treatment.

The company also entered into a partnership with OpenAI to use AI for drug exploration. The collaboration will aid in drug discovery, an area many firms are focusing on since the emergence of AI.

Sales of the company’s flagship Mounjaro and Zepbound are expected to stay strong this year as well. With additional manufacturing capacity coming online, the company is expected to continue growing in the next 5 years.

Overall LLY ranks 18th on our list of the high growth mega cap stocks you can buy and hold for the next 5 years. While we acknowledge the potential of LLY as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some 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 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 was originally published at Insider Monkey.