Eli Lilly & Co LLY shares are trading lower Tuesday. Here’s what you need to know.

What To Know: The company is set to report its second-quarter earnings on Aug. 8. The upcoming earnings report is expected to show EPS of $2.70 and revenue of $9.949 billion.

Significant options trading activity, involving large investors, has been noted. Of the 20 trades detected, 11 were call options totaling $726,640 and nine were put options totaling $617,684, indicating mixed market sentiment. Analysts predict a broad price range of $400 to $1,320 with an average target price of $986.80. for Eli Lilly based on recent trading volumes and open interest.

How To Buy Eli Lilly Stock?

Buying shares is typically done through a brokerage account. You can find a list of possible trading platforms here. Many will allow you to buy “fractional shares,” which allows you to own portions of stock without buying an entire share. For example, some stock, like Berkshire Hathaway, or Amazon.com, can cost thousands of dollars to own just one share. However, if you only want to invest a fraction of that, brokerages will allow you to do so.

In the the case of Eli Lilly, which is trading at $784.40 near market close Tuesday, $100 would buy you 0.13 shares of stock.

If you're looking to bet against a company, the process is more complex. You'll need access to an options trading platform, or a broker who will allow you to “go short” a share of stock by lending you the shares to sell. The process of shorting a stock can be found at this resource. Otherwise, if your broker allows you to trade options, you can either buy a put option, or sell a call option at a strike price above where shares are currently trading — either way it allows you to profit off of the share price decline.

LLY Price Action: Eli Lilly shares were down by 2.18% at $790.21 at market close Tuesday, according to Benzinga Pro.

See Also:

• Amazon Q2 Earnings Preview: Gains From eCommerce and Cloud Business, Operating Margin Upside On Analysts Radar

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