Operator Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Lilly Q4 2024 earnings call. [Operator instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mike Czapar,

Eli Lilly and Company LLY will report its fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 earnings on Feb. 6, before market open. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for sales and earnings is pegged at $13.72 billion and $5.15 per share, respectively. Earnings estimates for 2025 have declined from $24.05 to $23.57 per share over the past 30 days.

Eli Lilly ( LLY 3.89%) stock inched 2.5% higher through 9:50 a.m. ET Thursday after beating on the top and bottom lines in this morning's Q4 earnings report. Heading into the report, analysts forecast Lilly would earn $5.08 per share on sales of $13.4 billion. As it turns out, Lilly earned $5.32 per share in Q4, and sales were $13.5 billion.

Eli Lilly ripped off the bandage when it reported preliminary fourth-quarter results in mid-January, getting the bad news out of the way early. On Thursday morning, when the company formally released its fourth-quarter report,