Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Rating Reiterated by Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) in a research note published on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $60.00 price target on the stock.

IONS has been the subject of a number of other reports. Bank of America boosted their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Wolfe Research upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $58.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from an underperform rating to a market perform rating and set a $44.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, June 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ionis Pharmaceuticals has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $60.18.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

IONS stock opened at $51.86 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 7.28, a current ratio of 7.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.15. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 52-week low of $35.95 and a 52-week high of $54.44. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $43.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $44.55. The company has a market capitalization of $7.57 billion, a PE ratio of -19.42 and a beta of 0.40.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, Director Joseph Klein III sold 6,000 shares of the business’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 owns 16,346 shares in the company, valued at approximately $698,137.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 8,378 shares of the company’s stock valued at $424,000 after buying an additional 202 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 35.8% in the second quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 911 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 240 shares during the period. Grandfield & Dodd LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Grandfield & Dodd LLC now owns 33,104 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,675,000 after buying an additional 242 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3.8% in the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 9,633 shares of the company’s stock valued at $418,000 after buying an additional 351 shares during the period. Finally, M&T Bank Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 5,188 shares of the company’s stock valued at $263,000 after buying an additional 376 shares during the period. 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.