Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note published on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on EXEL. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Exelixis from $40.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Zacks Research raised shares of Exelixis from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 1st. Citizens Jmp increased their target price on shares of Exelixis from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 19th. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on shares of Exelixis in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $54.00 target price for the company. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Exelixis from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Exelixis presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $51.50.

Exelixis Stock Up 0.9%

EXEL stock opened at $65.11 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $50.48. The stock has a market cap of $16.13 billion, a PE ratio of 20.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.47. Exelixis has a fifty-two week low of $36.00 and a fifty-two week high of $65.59.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.06. Exelixis had a net margin of 35.33% and a return on equity of 42.17%. The firm had revenue of $628.69 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $636.40 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.75 EPS. Exelixis’s quarterly revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Exelixis will post 3.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Mary Beckerle sold 9,812 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.66, for a total transaction of $526,511.92. Following the transaction, the director owned 16,079 shares in the company, valued at $862,799.14. This represents a 37.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 2.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Exelixis

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Arkadios Wealth Advisors bought a new position in Exelixis during the first quarter valued at about $476,000. Corient Private Wealth LP acquired a new stake in shares of Exelixis in the second quarter worth about $4,324,000. L2 Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Exelixis during the 2nd quarter worth about $6,839,000. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Exelixis during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,581,991,000. Finally, JLB & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Exelixis during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,658,000. 85.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Exelixis

Exelixis, Inc is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing medicines for cancer and other serious diseases. The company’s research programs center primarily on targeted therapies, including treatments designed to inhibit signaling pathways involved in tumor growth and progression.

Exelixis’ lead product is CABOMETYX (cabozantinib), an oral medicine approved in the United States for certain patients with renal cell carcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, and differentiated thyroid cancer.