Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Price Target Increased to $51.00 by Analysts at Barclays

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) had its price objective raised by Barclays from $45.00 to $51.00 in a research note published on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

IONS has been the subject of a number of other reports. SVB Leerink raised Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $53.00 to $62.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $58.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. They issued a buy rating and a $75.00 target price for the company. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $60.68.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

IONS stock traded down $2.19 on Friday, reaching $49.13. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,352,517 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,269,613. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 52 week low of $35.95 and a 52 week high of $54.44. The company has a market capitalization of $7.17 billion, a P/E ratio of -18.40 and a beta of 0.40. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $44.74 and a two-hundred day moving average of $44.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.15, a current ratio of 7.37 and a quick ratio of 7.28.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($0.45) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.95) by $0.50. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 109.65% and a negative net margin of 44.90%. The business had revenue of $225.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $152.35 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In other news, Director Joseph Klein III sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $600,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $817,300. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.71% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. First Turn Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter worth $18,044,000. HealthInvest Partners AB acquired a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter worth $1,226,000. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter worth $3,158,000. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the first quarter worth $630,000. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 956,852 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,407,000 after buying an additional 58,000 shares during the last quarter. 93.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.