Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) Cut to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Sunday,Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Exelixis from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on Exelixis from $51.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 30th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Exelixis in a research report on Friday, September 11th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Exelixis in a research report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Exelixis from $53.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.79.

Exelixis Stock Performance

NASDAQ EXEL opened at $72.31 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $60.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $51.19. Exelixis has a twelve month low of $37.58 and a twelve month high of $73.44. The stock has a market cap of $17.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.65, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.45.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The biotechnology company reported $0.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $658.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $646.51 million. Exelixis had a return on equity of 45.54% and a net margin of 35.45%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.78 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Exelixis will post 3.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Exelixis

In other Exelixis news, Director Mary Beckerle sold 9,812 shares of Exelixis 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 completion of the sale, the director owned 16,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $862,799.14. This trade represents a 37.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 2.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Exelixis

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of EXEL. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Exelixis in the second quarter worth about $1,581,991,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Exelixis by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,299,597 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $184,391,000 after purchasing an additional 39,920 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in Exelixis by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,388,920 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $145,351,000 after purchasing an additional 58,149 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in Exelixis by 62.0% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,534,992 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $108,726,000 after purchasing an additional 970,144 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Exelixis by 30.7% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,149,397 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $116,949,000 after purchasing an additional 504,660 shares during the period. 85.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Exelixis Company Profile

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.