Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the eighteen research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seventeen have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $72.94.

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Craig Hallum cut their price objective on shares of Exact Sciences from $82.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Exact Sciences in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on Exact Sciences in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $75.00 price objective on the stock. BTIG Research boosted their target price on Exact Sciences from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their target price on Exact Sciences from $80.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th.

Exact Sciences Stock Down 2.0 %

EXAS opened at $61.25 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.93, a current ratio of 2.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $62.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.72. Exact Sciences has a 52 week low of $40.62 and a 52 week high of $79.62. The stock has a market cap of $11.34 billion, a PE ratio of -52.35 and a beta of 1.24.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The medical research company reported ($0.21) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.20) by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $708.66 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $716.80 million. Exact Sciences had a negative net margin of 7.95% and a negative return on equity of 6.17%. Exact Sciences’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Exact Sciences will post -1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Brian Baranick sold 929 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total value of $65,030.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,758 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $893,060. The trade was a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Kevin T. Conroy acquired 19,500 shares of Exact Sciences stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $51.35 per share, with a total value of $1,001,325.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,074,191 shares in the company, valued at $55,159,707.85. This represents a 1.85 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.36% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Exact Sciences

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. American Trust bought a new position in Exact Sciences in the 3rd quarter worth about $229,000. Synovus Financial Corp bought a new stake in Exact Sciences during the 3rd quarter valued at about $490,000. Tidal Investments LLC raised its holdings in Exact Sciences by 172.2% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 34,275 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,335,000 after buying an additional 21,683 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 0.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,105,970 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $211,104,000 after buying an additional 7,873 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp grew its holdings in shares of Exact Sciences by 43.5% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 9,256 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $630,000 after buying an additional 2,806 shares during the last quarter. 88.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Exact Sciences

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.