Investing.com - A pulsating rally in shares of Mylan and CVS Health Tuesday offset weakness in Eli Lilly, keeping the broader health care sector well above the flatline.
Mylan's third-quarter revenue fell short of estimates, but profit more than doubled, resurrecting bullish calls from Wall Street analysts, many of whom had previously claimed the drug company was on the brink of disaster following poor second-quarter results. Mylan (NASDAQ:MYL) shares surged more than 17%.
J.P. Morgan analyst Chris Schott said that recent weakness in Mylan shares was "overdone,” asserting that the drug company was "one of the better-positioned players in the space with a number of longer-term growth drivers in place (biosimilars, the pending genetic Advair approval, a significant ex-US business).”
Mylan's stock, however, remains down roughly 10% so far this year.
CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) posted earnings and revenue that beat on both the top and bottom lines Tuesday and said the acquisition of health insurer Aetna (NYSE:AET) would be completed before Thanksgiving, sending its shares more than 5% higher.
An improving pharmacy retail business bolstered the company's performance in the third quarter as earnings of $1.73 a share on revenue of $47.3 billion beat Wall Street estimates.
Diabetes specialist Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY), meanwhile, fell 4% shrugging off a third-quarter earnings and revenue beat as mixed results from key products weighed on performance.
Lilly's diabetes drug Trulicity and psoriasis medicine Taltz topped Wall Street forecasts, but newer treatments fell short.
"Performance of key products that are part of the new product story were mixed," Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) analyst Vamil Divan said.
The S&P 500 Health Care index rose 0.60%.