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

Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday after Truist Financial raised their price target on the stock from $38.00 to $42.00. Truist Financial currently has a buy rating on the stock. Exelixis traded as high as $37.14 and last traded at $37.04, with a volume of 1317363 shares. The stock had previously closed at $35.65.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Exelixis from $33.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Exelixis from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Exelixis from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Brookline Capital Management started coverage on shares of Exelixis in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, Bank of America cut shares of Exelixis from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $35.00 to $39.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $34.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Dana Aftab sold 1,162 shares of Exelixis stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.40, for a total value of $36,486.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 498,945 shares in the company, valued at $15,666,873. The trade was a 0.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Jeffrey Hessekiel sold 25,000 shares of Exelixis stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.39, for a total transaction of $709,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 580,325 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,475,426.75. This represents a 4.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 314,736 shares of company stock valued at $10,849,110. Insiders own 2.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Exelixis

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in EXEL. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Exelixis by 124.0% in the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 1,790,855 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $46,473,000 after acquiring an additional 991,494 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec bought a new stake in shares of Exelixis in the third quarter worth approximately $14,979,000. Farallon Capital Management LLC grew its position in Exelixis by 1.6% during the second quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 27,102,500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $608,993,000 after buying an additional 424,000 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in Exelixis by 12.7% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,281,578 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $73,425,000 after buying an additional 370,199 shares during the period. Finally, Burney Co. bought a new stake in Exelixis during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $12,267,000. 85.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Exelixis Price Performance

The firm’s 50-day moving average is $34.92 and its 200-day moving average is $29.08. The company has a market capitalization of $10.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 0.53.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The biotechnology company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $539.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $490.31 million. Exelixis had a net margin of 22.43% and a return on equity of 20.99%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.10 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Exelixis, Inc. will post 1.69 EPS 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.