Jennison Associates LLC Purchases 224,892 Shares of Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:XENE)

Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:XENE) by 39.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 801,553 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 224,892 shares during the quarter. Jennison Associates LLC owned 1.05% of Xenon Pharmaceuticals worth $31,421,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in XENE. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in Xenon Pharmaceuticals by 144.2% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,552,392 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $100,506,000 after purchasing an additional 1,507,135 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Xenon Pharmaceuticals by 1,263.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 976,783 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $38,456,000 after buying an additional 905,129 shares during the period. Vestal Point Capital LP lifted its position in shares of Xenon Pharmaceuticals by 57.1% during the 3rd quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP now owns 825,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $32,480,000 after buying an additional 300,000 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Xenon Pharmaceuticals by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,917,684 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $272,349,000 after buying an additional 149,511 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Braidwell LP grew its position in Xenon Pharmaceuticals by 5.7% in the third quarter. Braidwell LP now owns 2,707,255 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $106,585,000 after acquiring an additional 146,682 shares during the period. 95.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on XENE shares. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Xenon Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $53.00 price target on shares of Xenon Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Xenon Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $56.00.

Xenon Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 1.1 %

XENE opened at $39.98 on Wednesday. Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. has a 1-year low of $35.53 and a 1-year high of $50.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.05 billion, a PE ratio of -14.18 and a beta of 1.20. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $40.22 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $40.74.

Xenon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:XENE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.81) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.82) by $0.01. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.73) earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. will post -3.13 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Xenon Pharmaceuticals

In other news, CEO Ian Mortimer sold 22,468 shares of Xenon Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.20, for a total transaction of $903,213.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 31,302 shares in the company, valued at $1,258,340.40. The trade was a 41.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Sherry Aulin sold 18,709 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.21, for a total transaction of $770,997.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 62,383 shares of company stock worth $2,535,891 over the last 90 days. 5.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Xenon Pharmaceuticals

Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc, a neuroscience-focused biopharmaceutical company, engages in the development of therapeutics to treat patients with neurological disorders in Canada. Its clinical development pipeline includes XEN1101, a novel and potent Kv7 potassium channel opener, which is in Phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of epilepsy and other neurological disorders.