Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) Receives “Buy” Rating from Guggenheim

Guggenheim restated their buy rating on shares of Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) in a research note published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets downgraded Exelixis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $36.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Exelixis from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Exelixis from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Exelixis to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Exelixis from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $35.50.

Exelixis Price Performance

Shares of Exelixis stock opened at $32.88 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.53. The business has a 50-day moving average of $34.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $29.61. Exelixis has a 1 year low of $20.01 and a 1 year high of $37.59.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The biotechnology company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $539.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $490.31 million. Exelixis had a net margin of 22.43% and a return on equity of 20.99%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.10 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Exelixis will post 1.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Dana Aftab sold 1,162 shares of Exelixis stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.40, for a total transaction of $36,486.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 498,945 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,666,873. This trade represents a 0.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Jeffrey Hessekiel sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.39, for a total transaction of $709,750.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 580,325 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,475,426.75. This represents a 4.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 314,736 shares of company stock worth $10,849,110 over the last three months. Insiders own 2.85% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Exelixis

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in Exelixis by 45.3% in the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 90,211 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,031,000 after acquiring an additional 28,126 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Exelixis during the 2nd quarter worth $309,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Exelixis by 4.3% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 67,740 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,522,000 after buying an additional 2,813 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in Exelixis in the second quarter valued at about $801,000. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its stake in Exelixis by 242.8% during the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 89,449 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,010,000 after acquiring an additional 63,352 shares in the last quarter. 85.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Exelixis

Exelixis, Inc, an oncology company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of new medicines for difficult-to-treat cancers in the United States. The company offers CABOMETYX tablets for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma who received prior anti-angiogenic therapy; and COMETRIQ capsules for the treatment of progressive and metastatic medullary thyroid cancer.