Eli Lilly in Q2 13Fs: Citadel Nearly Quadruples Its Stake While Active Managers Trim

Eli Lilly is one of the few mega-cap stocks where the 13F story and the fundamental story pulled in different directions during the second quarter. Index giants kept buying, one of the world's busiest multi-strategy shops nearly quadrupled its position, and a handful of active managers quietly took profits. Then, on October 29, the company reported results that made those trims look early.

What the Q2 2026 filings show

Using aggregated Q2 2026 13F data (filings submitted between early September and late October), the largest reported increase among sampled filers came from Citadel Advisors. It added roughly 704,000 shares, a gain of about 291%, bringing its stake to about 945,000 shares worth around $1.1 billion. State Street, a passive-heavy custodian, added about 606,000 shares, lifting its position to roughly 36.2 million shares, worth more than $43 billion at quarter-end prices. Allianz Asset Management also added, up about 15% to roughly 579,000 shares.

On the other side, Manulife (Manufacturers Life) cut about 7.6% of its position, Neuberger Berman trimmed about 2%, and Sweden's AP-fonden pension cut nearly 11%. None of these are dramatic exits, but they are the kind of active-manager trimming that tends to show up after a stock has run hard.

Reading the Citadel move carefully

A 291% increase at Citadel is eye-catching, but our readers know the caveat: Citadel runs market-making, arbitrage and multiple pod strategies, so a larger stake may reflect hedged exposure rather than a directional bet. We covered this in detail in our Citadel signal-versus-noise piece. The 13F cannot show the offsetting options or short positions, so treat it as a clue rather than a conviction call.

State Street is the opposite case. Its growth of under 2% mostly reflects index and ETF mechanics, which is why we recommend filtering large passive custodians out when hunting for real conviction. See our note on the big index funds and 13F noise.

The fundamentals that followed

Lilly's third-quarter report landed after the Q2 filings were struck. Revenue came in at $24.4 billion, up 39% year over year, with diluted EPS up 16% to $7.22. Mounjaro revenue rose 65% to $10.7 billion, and Zepbound reached about $5.35 billion, up 49%. The company raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $91-92 billion from $85-87 billion. Roughly $900 million of the quarter came from one-time items, and Lilly booked $4.2 billion in acquired in-process R&D charges, so the underlying picture is slightly less clean than the headline.

This is the 13F lag in action: managers who trimmed in Q2 were acting on information that was already stale by the time the quarter's results arrived. Our guide to using the 45-day lag explains how to account for that gap.

How to use this on InvestorLens

Healthcare has become a more crowded area, as we noted in our look at healthcare as the new crowded trade. A few practical steps:

1. Use the overlap tool to see how many top investors hold LLY alongside other obesity-drug and healthcare names.

2. Check the flow page to separate net buyers from net sellers once passive funds are set aside.

3. Browse individual investor profiles to see whether the Q2 trimmers were long-term holders harvesting gains or funds rotating out entirely.

4. Compare with the macro consensus view to see whether healthcare is gaining or losing share of overall institutional capital.

The takeaway

The Q2 Lilly data is a good reminder that 13F signals are directional hints, not verdicts. Buying by a multi-strategy fund may be hedged, buying by an index custodian is mechanical, and selling by active managers may be simple rebalancing after a big run. The real information is in the pattern across many filers over several quarters. If Q3 filings, due by mid-November, show concentrated buyers rather than just passive inflows, that would be a stronger signal that conviction in the obesity-drug leader is broadening.

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Data sourced from public SEC 13F filings. Educational research only — not investment advice.