U.S. President Donald Trump bought $680,000 of Eli Lilly (LLY) stock around the time that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the company’s new weight-loss pill.
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President Trump also purchased LLY stock after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services established a pilot program that will see Medicare patients reimbursed for the pharmaceutical company’s weight-loss drugs, ultimately paying as low as $50 a month for the GLP-1 medications.
The stock purchase by Trump was revealed as part of the U.S. government’s ethics disclosures, which list the stocks and bond trades made by the president each quarter, although exact dates when the buying and selling took place is not included.
Eli Lilly’s income statement. Source: The Fly
Ethical Issues in Washington, D.C.
Stock trading by elected officials in Washington, D.C. has been a thorny issue for many years. Several attempts have been made in Congress to ban politicians from trading in stocks and bonds while they are sitting members of the House of Representatives or Senate.
Trump isn’t the only elected official in Washington, D.C. who regularly buys and sells stocks. Many politicians and their family members actively trade while in office, raising criticisms of insider trading, self-dealing, and benefitting from government information that is not accessible to the general public.
As an example, Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, was a successful trader who bought and sold stocks regularly while his wife served in Congress.
LLY stock has risen more than 10% since its weight-loss drug Foundayo was approved by the FDA on April 1 of this year.
Is LLY Stock a Buy?
The stock of Eli Lilly has a consensus Strong Buy rating among 22 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 19 Buy, two Hold, and one Sell recommendations issued in the last three months. The average LLY price target of $1,262.85 implies 28% upside from current levels.
