Ionis Pharmaceuticals’ (IONS) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Guggenheim

Guggenheim restated their buy rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on IONS. StockNews.com raised shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $67.00 to $64.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $70.00 price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.37.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 5.0 %

NASDAQ:IONS opened at $27.09 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $4.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.91 and a beta of 0.28. The company has a current ratio of 8.47, a quick ratio of 8.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 1 year low of $26.88 and a 1 year high of $52.34. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $32.05 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $35.29.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.66) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.12) by $0.46. The firm had revenue of $227.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $140.97 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 100.05% and a negative net margin of 64.25%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 30.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.12 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, EVP Eric Swayze sold 7,154 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.84, for a total transaction of $234,937.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 45,670 shares in the company, valued at $1,499,802.80. The trade was a 13.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Elizabeth L. Hougen sold 8,870 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.81, for a total value of $291,024.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 107,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,539,706.85. This represents a 7.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 111,956 shares of company stock worth $3,608,439 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 2.71% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ionis Pharmaceuticals

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 7.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,668,358 shares of the company’s stock worth $106,922,000 after buying an additional 183,814 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 967.2% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 141,917 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,961,000 after purchasing an additional 128,619 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 222.5% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 23,927 shares of the company’s stock valued at $836,000 after purchasing an additional 16,508 shares during the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment boosted its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 4.1% during the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 916,060 shares of the company’s stock valued at $367,000 after purchasing an additional 36,084 shares in the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the third quarter valued at about $673,000. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc discovers and develops RNA-targeted therapeutics in the United States. The company offers SPINRAZA for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in pediatric and adult patients; TEGSEDI, an antisense injection for the treatment of polyneuropathy caused by hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis in adults; and WAYLIVRA, an antisense medicine for treatment for familial chylomicronemia syndrome (FCS) and familial partial lipodystrophy.