Eli Lilly Q3 2026 earnings: revenue jumps 39% on weight-loss drug demand
Eli Lilly beat Q3 2026 profit and sales estimates as weight-loss and diabetes drug demand drove revenue up 39%, prompting another increase to its full-year outlook.
| Q3 2026 | Reported | Expected | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| EPS | $7.48 | $6.61 | +13.1% |
| Revenue | $24.40B | $22.84B | +6.8% |
Key takeaways
- Revenue rose about 39% year-over-year to $24.4 billion, comfortably topping what Wall Street had expected, with growth driven mainly by strong ongoing demand for Lilly’s diabetes drug Mounjaro and its weight-loss drug Zepbound.
- Adjusted (non-GAAP) earnings per share of $7.48 beat expectations, but the figure includes roughly $4.57 per share in one-time charges tied to research acquired through a recently completed biotech acquisition focused on treatment-resistant depression — a much larger charge than the comparable item a year earlier.
- Roughly $900 million of the quarter’s revenue came from one-time items, including a $410 million milestone payment related to the diabetes drug Jardiance and favorable adjustments to rebate and discount estimates, meaning part of the revenue beat reflects items unlikely to repeat every quarter.
- Lilly raised the midpoint of its full-year 2026 revenue guidance by $5.5 billion, to a new range of $91.0 billion to $92.0 billion — the latest in a string of upward revisions to its outlook over recent quarters.
- Full-year adjusted EPS guidance was set at $35.00 to $36.00, slightly below the prior $35.50-$36.50 range, because the one-time acquisition-related charges taken this quarter outweighed an increase in the company’s underlying profit expectations.
- CEO David Ricks said Lilly had “another strong quarter, exceeding our prior expectations and allowing us to raise our full-year outlook.”
- During the quarter the FDA approved an expanded use for Mounjaro (reducing cardiovascular risk in adults with type 2 diabetes) and cleared Onswik, a new once-weekly basal insulin, additions that could widen Lilly’s product lineup beyond its current weight-loss and diabetes bestsellers.
- Underlying profitability remains very high: gross margin over the trailing year was about 83% and net profit margin was roughly 34%, reflecting the pricing power of patent-protected drugs like Mounjaro and Zepbound, while trailing-year revenue growth near 50% shows how much the weight-loss drug boom has reshaped the company’s growth trajectory.
Q3 2026 in context
| Metric | Sep 2026 | Sep 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $24.4B | $17.6B | +38.6% |
| Net income | $6.5B | $5.6B | +15.5% |
| Diluted EPS | $7.22 | $6.21 | +16.3% |
| Gross margin | 83.9% | 82.9% | +1.0 pts |
| Net margin | 26.4% | 31.7% | -5.3 pts |
Figures for the quarter ended Sep 2026 and the quarter ended Sep 2025, as reported to the SEC.
How the stock took it
Eli Lilly and Company closed at $1288.30 on Oct 28, 2026, the last session before the report, and at $1417.54 on Oct 30, 2026, the first session after it — +10.0% across the report.
| Earlier report | Close before | Close after | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 5, 2026 | $1115.68 | $1191.94 | +6.8% |
| Apr 30, 2026 | $851.21 | $963.33 | +13.2% |
| Oct 30, 2025 | $813.53 | $862.86 | +6.1% |
Closes from the market's daily record. Each figure spans the report date — from the last session that closed before it to the first that closed after — because a company may report before the open or after the close.
Fundamentals
| Metric | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Gross margin | 83.4% | Trailing 12 months |
| Operating margin | 42.2% | Trailing 12 months |
| Net profit margin | 33.5% | Trailing 12 months |
| Pretax margin | 42.2% | Trailing 12 months |
| EPS | $29.80 | Trailing 12 months |
| Revenue growth (YoY) | 49.6% | Trailing 12 months |
| EPS growth (YoY) | 94.6% | Trailing 12 months |
| Return on equity | 92.6% | Trailing 12 months |
Sources: company report · company report and earnings coverage · company earnings release · provided fundamentals data