Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Trading Up 4.9%

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) shares shot up 4.9% on Monday . The company traded as high as $51.72 and last traded at $50.15. 211,832 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average session volume of 1,205,048 shares. The stock had previously closed at $47.82.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wolfe Research raised shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $44.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 14th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday, June 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.07.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 5.8 %

The business has a fifty day moving average price of $42.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $44.46. The company has a current ratio of 7.37, a quick ratio of 7.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.38 billion, a PE ratio of -18.95 and a beta of 0.40.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.98) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.10) by $0.12. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 49.49% and a negative return on equity of 107.64%. The company had revenue of $119.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $131.42 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.87) earnings per share. Ionis Pharmaceuticals’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In other news, Director Joseph Klein III sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.71, for a total transaction of $256,260.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,346 shares in the company, valued at $698,137.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 2.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Legato Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at $276,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter worth approximately $9,329,000. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 271.3% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 9,282 shares of the company’s stock worth $470,000 after purchasing an additional 6,782 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 352.3% during the 4th quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 16,598 shares of the company’s stock worth $840,000 after buying an additional 12,928 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners acquired a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

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.