Eli Lilly's Animal-Health Unit Raises $1.5 Billion in IPO
*By Michael Teich*
Wall Street seems to have an appetite for Elanco.
Stock in the animal healthcare start-up that sells antibiotics for pets and livestock surged 50 percent in its market debut Thursday. Shares closed at $36 after pricing at $24 in the IPO ー a price that was already above the expected range of $20 to $23 a share.
Although the company may be relatively unknown to traders, Elanco is a household name among players in the animal healthcare industry, CEO Jeff Simmons told Cheddar.
“We may be new here on Wall Street, but we’re not new in the market for veterinarians and for farmers. We’ve been out there for more than six decades," he said.
Elanco, which spun out of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly in July, generates two-thirds of its $2.9 billion in revenue from drugs given to livestock ー cattle and chicken, for example.
The use of antibiotics in livestock has been a polarizing issue among consumers.
In its S-1 IPO filing, the company mentioned one risk to its outlook was the preference for dairy products produced without antibiotics.
Simmons, however, said the trend is actually an opportunity for the company and argued the medication creates safer food products.
“It all starts with a healthy animal. A healthy animal creates safe high quality meat milk and eggs,” he said. “We gotta come on and make sure that animal stays healthy.”
Food animal medicines and vaccines raked in $21.2 billion in revenue in 2017, according to research and consulting firm Vetnosis, and the industry is not expected to slow down any time soon.
According to data firm [Research and Markets](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-animal-healthcare-market-2017-2025---a-53-billion-market-potential-300577550.html), the global market for animal healthcare is forecast to be worth $53.42 billion by 2025.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/animal-medicine-company-elanco-surges-in-market-debut).
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
It’s an annual tradition: the Fed’s banking ‘stress test.’ A year after the regional banking crisis, there are good reasons to make sure they’re prepped.
Summer is upon us, which means weddings, trips overseas, and trips to see Taylor Swift. Avoid a “Cruel Summer” with these budget-friendly tips and tricks.
While Nvidia's meteoric rise led it to briefly dethrone Microsoft as the world's biggest public company, there's a lot more going on in this market than A.I.