Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $60.00.

A number of brokerages have weighed in on IONS. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $65.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $82.00 to $77.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 7th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday, February 20th.

Insider Transactions at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In other news, Director Michael R. Hayden bought 5,000 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were bought at an average price of $36.22 per share, with a total value of $181,100.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 35,219 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,275,632.18. This represents a 16.55 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Eric Swayze sold 7,154 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.84, for a total value of $234,937.36. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 45,670 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,499,802.80. This trade represents a 13.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 111,816 shares of company stock valued at $3,603,914. Insiders own 2.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of IONS. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 9.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,472,539 shares of the company’s stock worth $575,880,000 after acquiring an additional 1,416,781 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 46.5% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,465,413 shares of the company’s stock worth $400,831,000 after purchasing an additional 3,637,041 shares during the period. Orbimed Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 21.2% in the 4th quarter. Orbimed Advisors LLC now owns 2,817,347 shares of the company’s stock worth $98,494,000 after purchasing an additional 492,900 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,687,248 shares of the company’s stock worth $93,976,000 after buying an additional 18,890 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter worth $59,948,000. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Up 2.4 %

Shares of IONS opened at $33.75 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $5.37 billion, a PE ratio of -11.10 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a quick ratio of 8.82, a current ratio of 8.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12. The company’s fifty day moving average is $33.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $37.52. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a fifty-two week low of $30.23 and a fifty-two week high of $52.34.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.66) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.12) by $0.46. The firm had revenue of $227.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $140.97 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 100.05% and a negative net margin of 64.25%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 30.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.12 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.5 earnings per share for the current year.

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.