Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Earns “Outperform” Rating from Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) in a research report report published on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $70.00 price objective on the stock.

IONS has been the subject of several other research reports. Leerink Partnrs upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Needham & Company LLC restated a buy rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Leerink Partners upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $53.00 to $62.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $64.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from an underperform rating to a market perform rating and set a $44.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, June 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ionis Pharmaceuticals presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $60.56.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $40.85 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.67, a current ratio of 7.61 and a quick ratio of 7.51. The company has a market capitalization of $5.96 billion, a PE ratio of -15.30 and a beta of 0.39. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a one year low of $35.95 and a one year high of $54.44. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $46.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $43.72.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($0.45) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.92) by $0.47. The business had revenue of $225.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $152.35 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 115.66% and a negative net margin of 44.90%. Ionis Pharmaceuticals’s revenue was up 19.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.60 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In related news, EVP Richard S. Geary sold 2,430 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.00, for a total transaction of $116,640.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 85,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,104,384. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Richard S. Geary sold 2,430 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.00, for a total transaction of $116,640.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 85,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,104,384. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Klein III sold 12,000 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $600,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 16,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $817,300. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 14,750 shares of company stock worth $732,371 over the last 90 days. 2.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ionis Pharmaceuticals

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in IONS. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 162.2% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,616,978 shares of the company’s stock worth $233,573,000 after acquiring an additional 2,856,353 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 956,852 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,407,000 after acquiring an additional 58,000 shares in the last quarter. Candriam S.C.A. increased its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 4.0% in the second quarter. Candriam S.C.A. now owns 948,266 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,192,000 after acquiring an additional 36,369 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 12.2% during the 1st quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 571,763 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,786,000 after buying an additional 62,230 shares during the period. Finally, Groupama Asset Managment bought a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $18,068,000. 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.