Lilly earnings down, but better than expected
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
Having put the bad news out of the way three weeks ago, Lilly presented an unexpectedly rosy picture to investors on January 31 when it released its 2011 results. Fourth quarter adjusted earnings of $969 million were down 22% from the same period in 2010, but that worked out to per share earnings of 87 cents, while various polls of analysts taken before the announcement had expected a figure in the 80 to 81 cent range.