Pharmaceuticals giant Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY) was higher in mid-morning trade despite missing expectations with its fourth quarter earnings.
In mid-morning trade the shares were up 1.8% at US$76 in a falling market.
Fourth quarter earnings per share of 95 cents were a couple of pennies short of market expectations, but revenue, which rose to US$5.76bn from US$5.38bn the year before, topped expectations of US$5.55bn.
Net income climbed to US$1.01bn from US$0.83bn the previous year.
The company guided the market to expect earnings per share of between US$4.05 and US$4.15, meaning the market consensus forecast of US$4.10 is slap bang in the middle of that range.
Full-year revenue is expected to range from US$21.8bn to US$22.3bn.
"Newly launched products - including Trulicity, Cyramza, Jardiance and Taltz - led Lilly's volume-driven growth in 2016. Pipeline progress also continued with approvals of new products and new indications for existing products in our core therapeutic areas of diabetes, oncology and immunology," said David Ricks, who is Lilly's president and also its chief executive officer.
"We expect this momentum to continue in 2017 and remain focused on launching new products, improving productivity and advancing our pipeline as we work to bring life-changing medicines to patients," Ricks added.