CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Wednesday that Eli Lilly will soon be the first pharmaceutical company to reach a $1 trillion stock market value. Shortly after the open, shares topped $1,000 each for the first time. At session highs, the stock exceeded a $950 billion market cap. Shares would have to hit nearly $1,058 to reach $1 trillion. “People are beginning to realize maybe this thing is worth far more,” Cramer said during ” Squawk on the Street .” He pointed to the White House’s recent GLP-1 deal with Lilly and rival Novo Nordisk , which will lower prices of some of their obesity drugs for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries in 2026. This, in turn, will give more people access to Lilly’s blockbuster weight-loss drugs. The active ingredient in Lilly’s obesity treatment Zepbound, an injectable, is tirzepatide. Eli Lilly has been working on a pill version with a similar active ingredient called orforglipron. “When you get the pill form, I think you’re going to have tremendous sales,” Cramer said Wednesday during the Morning Meeting for members of the CNBC Investing Club. He has said that people like pills better than shots. Additionally, pills are much easier to manufacture. Lilly CEO David Ricks has said he hopes to have orforglipron launched in the second half of 2026. Wall Street echoed Cramer’s bullish remarks on the promise of a Lilly weight loss pill. Citi analysts said they are “all in” on the pill and raised their forecast for 2026 pill sales to $1.8 billion from $500 million. “Given last week’s landmark GLP-1 agreement with broadening Medicare / Medicaid access for tirzepatide / orforglipron, we think Lilly’s domination of the category should accelerate,” the analysts, who have a buy rating on shares, wrote. In the same note, Citi hiked Lilly’s price target to a new Street high of $1,500 from $1,250 apiece, implying a more than 50% upside from Tuesday’s close. It’s been quite a comeback for Lilly shares, which tanked 14% on Aug. 7 after disappointing late-stage trial data for its obesity pill overshadowed its overall solid quarterly earnings report. Eli Lilly is a holding in Cramer’s Charitable Trust , the portfolio managed by the CNBC Investing Club.
