Royal Bank of Canada Begins Coverage on Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS)

Equities researchers at Royal Bank of Canada started coverage on shares of Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) in a research report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm set a “sector perform” rating and a $52.00 price target on the medical research company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price indicates a potential upside of 15.56% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on EXAS. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Exact Sciences from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Exact Sciences from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Exact Sciences from $82.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Exact Sciences from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on shares of Exact Sciences in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.83.

Exact Sciences Stock Performance

Shares of EXAS opened at $45.00 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $51.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.36 billion, a PE ratio of -8.08 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a quick ratio of 1.93, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. Exact Sciences has a 52-week low of $40.62 and a 52-week high of $79.62.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The medical research company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.29) by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $713.42 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $701.45 million. Exact Sciences had a negative net margin of 37.29% and a negative return on equity of 5.29%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Exact Sciences will post -0.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Exact Sciences

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Perigon Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Exact Sciences by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,436 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $474,000 after purchasing an additional 264 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Exact Sciences by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 13,625 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $763,000 after buying an additional 269 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its holdings in Exact Sciences by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 14,447 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $812,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Huntington National Bank increased its holdings in Exact Sciences by 838.1% in the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 394 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 352 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in Exact Sciences by 6.1% in the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 6,489 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $442,000 after buying an additional 371 shares during the last quarter. 88.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.