Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Price Target Raised to $70.00

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) had its price target raised by Guggenheim from $64.00 to $70.00 in a report issued on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on IONS. BMO Capital Markets cut Ionis Pharmaceuticals from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and lowered their price target for the company from $67.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. They issued a buy rating and a $75.00 price objective for the company. Needham & Company LLC restated a buy rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from an underperform rating to a market perform rating and set a $44.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a sell rating in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ionis Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $60.68.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 4.3 %

Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock traded down $2.13 during trading on Friday, reaching $47.00. 1,280,762 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,221,323. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 52-week low of $35.95 and a 52-week high of $54.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.15, a quick ratio of 7.28 and a current ratio of 7.37. The firm has a market cap of $6.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -18.40 and a beta of 0.40. The company’s 50-day moving average is $44.74 and its two-hundred day moving average is $44.34.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($0.45) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.92) by $0.47. The firm had revenue of $225.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $152.35 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 109.65% and a negative net margin of 44.90%. Ionis Pharmaceuticals’s revenue was up 19.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.60 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, Director Joseph Klein III sold 12,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $600,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 16,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $817,300. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 2.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of IONS. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 271.3% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 9,282 shares of the company’s stock worth $470,000 after buying an additional 6,782 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 352.3% in the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 16,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $840,000 after acquiring an additional 12,928 shares during the period. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners bought a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 4th quarter worth approximately $720,000. Finally, Strs Ohio bought a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter valued at $1,253,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

About Ionis Pharmaceuticals

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.