Investors Purchase Large Volume of Exact Sciences Call Options (NASDAQ:EXAS)

Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) saw some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock investors acquired 7,321 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 166% compared to the typical volume of 2,754 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Exact Sciences

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EXAS. National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in Exact Sciences by 30.9% in the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 848 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Exact Sciences by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 695,542 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $51,466,000 after purchasing an additional 24,259 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its holdings in Exact Sciences by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 14,901 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,102,000 after purchasing an additional 759 shares during the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its stake in Exact Sciences by 36.7% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,230 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $91,000 after buying an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kingsview Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Exact Sciences by 24.0% during the 4th quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,491 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $924,000 after buying an additional 2,420 shares during the period. 88.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Exact Sciences in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $75.00 target price on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Exact Sciences from $100.00 to $82.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Exact Sciences in a report on Monday, June 3rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $75.00 price target on the stock. Scotiabank began coverage on Exact Sciences in a report on Thursday, June 27th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $70.00 price objective for the company. Finally, BTIG Research decreased their target price on Exact Sciences from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Exact Sciences presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $78.14.

Exact Sciences Stock Up 6.0 %

EXAS stock opened at $69.48 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $55.37 and a 200 day moving average of $55.52. The firm has a market cap of $12.84 billion, a PE ratio of -52.64 and a beta of 1.26. Exact Sciences has a twelve month low of $40.62 and a twelve month high of $79.62. The company has a quick ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The medical research company reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.37) by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $699.26 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $690.02 million. Exact Sciences had a negative return on equity of 4.97% and a negative net margin of 6.70%. Exact Sciences’s quarterly revenue was up 12.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.45) EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Exact Sciences will post -0.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Exact Sciences Company Profile

Exact Sciences Corporation provides cancer screening and diagnostic test products in the United States and internationally. The company offers Cologuard, a non-invasive stool-based DNA screening test to detect DNA and hemoglobin biomarkers associated with colorectal cancer and pre-cancer. It also provides Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score Test; Oncotype DX Breast DCIS Score Test; Oncotype DX Colon Recurrence Score Test; OncoExTra Test for tumor profiling for patients with advanced, metastatic, refractory, relapsed, or recurrent cancer; and Covid-19 testing services.