Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) Hits New 12-Month High After Analyst Upgrade

Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Stephens raised their price target on the stock from $23.00 to $29.00. Stephens currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Exelixis traded as high as $31.20 and last traded at $31.20, with a volume of 19800 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $28.73.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on EXEL. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Exelixis from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Exelixis from $33.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Exelixis from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Exelixis in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $30.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Exelixis from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $31.44.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Exelixis news, Director Maria C. Freire sold 8,250 shares of Exelixis stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.56, for a total transaction of $219,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 91,007 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,417,145.92. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Exelixis news, Director Maria C. Freire sold 8,250 shares of Exelixis stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.56, for a total transaction of $219,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 91,007 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,417,145.92. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Dana Aftab sold 95,000 shares of Exelixis stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total value of $2,375,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 520,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,024,750. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 352,858 shares of company stock worth $9,349,879 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Exelixis

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Farallon Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Exelixis by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 27,102,500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $608,993,000 after purchasing an additional 424,000 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its position in shares of Exelixis by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 15,163,066 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $340,714,000 after buying an additional 61,350 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management grew its position in shares of Exelixis by 107.7% during the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 5,763,728 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $129,511,000 after buying an additional 2,989,021 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Exelixis by 7.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,137,201 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $115,434,000 after buying an additional 349,837 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Exelixis by 12.7% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,281,578 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $73,425,000 after buying an additional 370,199 shares during the period. 85.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Exelixis Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $9.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $26.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $24.15.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The biotechnology company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.44. Exelixis had a return on equity of 15.54% and a net margin of 17.38%. The company had revenue of $637.18 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $468.21 million. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Exelixis, Inc. will post 1.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Exelixis

Exelixis, Inc, an oncology company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of new medicines for difficult-to-treat cancers in the United States. The company offers CABOMETYX tablets for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma who received prior anti-angiogenic therapy; and COMETRIQ capsules for the treatment of progressive and metastatic medullary thyroid cancer.