Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) have earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $58.43.

IONS has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $44.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 24th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In related news, EVP Joseph Baroldi sold 4,006 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.60, for a total transaction of $166,649.60. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,631 shares in the company, valued at $816,649.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Joseph Baroldi sold 4,006 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.60, for a total value of $166,649.60. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,631 shares in the company, valued at $816,649.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Klein III sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.71, for a total transaction of $256,260.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 16,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $698,137.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 2.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Pingora Partners LLC bought a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Mather Group LLC. acquired a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the first quarter valued at about $29,000. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners bought a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the first quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of IONS opened at $41.83 on Friday. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 52-week low of $35.95 and a 52-week high of $54.44. The company has a quick ratio of 7.28, a current ratio of 7.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.15. The firm has a market cap of $6.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.67 and a beta of 0.35. The business’s 50 day moving average is $39.97 and its two-hundred day moving average is $44.97.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.98) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.10) by $0.12. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 107.64% and a negative net margin of 49.49%. The company had revenue of $119.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $131.42 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.87) EPS. The business’s revenue was down 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.