Merit Financial Group LLC Invests $235,000 in Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS)

Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 4,190 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $235,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Exact Sciences by 12.1% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,002,784 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $42,389,000 after buying an additional 108,296 shares during the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank lifted its position in Exact Sciences by 2.7% during the second quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 10,937 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $462,000 after acquiring an additional 284 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. boosted its stake in Exact Sciences by 3.8% in the second quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 21,576 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $912,000 after acquiring an additional 799 shares in the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its stake in Exact Sciences by 61.2% in the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 34,787 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,470,000 after acquiring an additional 13,213 shares in the last quarter. Finally, APG Asset Management N.V. increased its position in shares of Exact Sciences by 40.5% during the second quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 90,802 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,580,000 after purchasing an additional 26,155 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Exact Sciences from $80.00 to $60.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Exact Sciences from $82.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Exact Sciences in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Exact Sciences from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Exact Sciences from $82.00 to $67.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $72.76.

Exact Sciences Price Performance

Exact Sciences stock opened at $55.98 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.36 billion, a P/E ratio of -47.85 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $57.54 and its 200 day moving average price is $59.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 1.93 and a current ratio of 2.12. Exact Sciences Co. has a 1 year low of $40.62 and a 1 year high of $79.62.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The medical research company reported ($0.21) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.20) by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $708.66 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.80 million. Exact Sciences had a negative net margin of 7.95% and a negative return on equity of 6.17%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Exact Sciences Co. will post -1.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Kevin T. Conroy acquired 19,500 shares of Exact Sciences stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $51.35 per share, with a total value of $1,001,325.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 1,074,191 shares in the company, valued at $55,159,707.85. This trade represents a 1.85 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.36% of the company’s stock.

About Exact Sciences

Exact Sciences Corporation provides cancer screening and diagnostic test products in the United States and internationally. The company offers Cologuard, a non-invasive stool-based DNA screening test to detect DNA and hemoglobin biomarkers associated with colorectal cancer and pre-cancer. It also provides Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score Test; Oncotype DX Breast DCIS Score Test; Oncotype DX Colon Recurrence Score Test; OncoExTra Test for tumor profiling for patients with advanced, metastatic, refractory, relapsed, or recurrent cancer; and Covid-19 testing services.