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

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have issued a hold recommendation, thirteen have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $60.00.

A number of brokerages have commented on IONS. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $67.00 to $64.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $60.00 to $45.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $65.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $82.00 to $77.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In other news, CEO Brett P. Monia sold 33,445 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total value of $1,091,310.35. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 207,396 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,767,331.48. The trade was a 13.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Patrick R. O’neil sold 6,165 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.62, for a total transaction of $194,937.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 57,452 shares in the company, valued at $1,816,632.24. This represents a 9.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 111,816 shares of company stock valued at $3,603,914. Corporate insiders own 2.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,472,539 shares of the company’s stock worth $575,880,000 after purchasing an additional 1,416,781 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 46.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,465,413 shares of the company’s stock valued at $400,831,000 after buying an additional 3,637,041 shares during the period. Orbimed Advisors LLC raised its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 21.2% in the fourth quarter. Orbimed Advisors LLC now owns 2,817,347 shares of the company’s stock worth $98,494,000 after acquiring an additional 492,900 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,687,248 shares of the company’s stock worth $93,976,000 after acquiring an additional 18,890 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter worth $59,948,000. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 0.3 %

IONS opened at $31.76 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12, a quick ratio of 8.82 and a current ratio of 8.47. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $33.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.98. The firm has a market cap of $5.05 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.45 and a beta of 0.34. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a twelve month low of $30.23 and a twelve month high of $52.34.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.66) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.12) by $0.46. The company had revenue of $227.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $140.97 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 100.05% and a negative net margin of 64.25%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 30.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.12 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.5 EPS for the current year.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

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.