Victory Capital Management Inc. Reduces Position in Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL)

Victory Capital Management Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL) by 38.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 83,650 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 52,528 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Exelixis were worth $2,786,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in shares of Exelixis by 82.1% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,562,790 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $52,884,000 after acquiring an additional 704,786 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec bought a new position in Exelixis in the third quarter worth $14,979,000. Burney Co. bought a new position in shares of Exelixis during the fourth quarter valued at $12,267,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Exelixis by 20.4% during the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,156,996 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $71,828,000 after acquiring an additional 366,141 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in shares of Exelixis during the fourth quarter valued at $7,455,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EXEL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup increased their price objective on Exelixis from $38.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Exelixis from $30.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com raised Exelixis from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Morgan Stanley raised Exelixis from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Oppenheimer cut Exelixis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $41.00 to $33.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.59.

Exelixis Price Performance

NASDAQ:EXEL opened at $36.65 on Monday. Exelixis, Inc. has a 1 year low of $20.14 and a 1 year high of $40.02. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.36 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $32.53. The company has a market cap of $10.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.71, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.57.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The biotechnology company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by ($0.03). Exelixis had a return on equity of 23.52% and a net margin of 24.04%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Exelixis, Inc. will post 2.04 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Exelixis

In related news, Director Mary C. Beckerle sold 12,210 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.88, for a total transaction of $425,884.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 30,406 shares in the company, valued at $1,060,561.28. The trade was a 28.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Patrick J. Haley sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.80, for a total value of $388,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 341,028 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,231,886.40. The trade was a 2.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 140,343 shares of company stock worth $5,177,234. 2.85% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Exelixis Profile

Exelixis, Inc, an oncology company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of new medicines for difficult-to-treat cancers in the United States. The company offers CABOMETYX tablets for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma who received prior anti-angiogenic therapy; and COMETRIQ capsules for the treatment of progressive and metastatic medullary thyroid cancer.