Royal Bank of Canada Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) Stock

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) had its price objective lifted by equities researchers at Royal Bank of Canada from $38.00 to $40.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the biotechnology company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective points to a potential upside of 9.14% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research analysts also recently issued reports on EXEL. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Exelixis from $30.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Exelixis from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of 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 note on Friday, January 24th. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Exelixis from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $36.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Brookline Capital Management assumed coverage on shares of Exelixis in a report on Monday, December 23rd. They set a “buy” rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.59.

Exelixis Price Performance

NASDAQ:EXEL opened at $36.65 on Thursday. Exelixis has a one year low of $20.14 and a one year high of $40.02. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.71, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.57.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The biotechnology company reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.03). Exelixis had a return on equity of 23.52% and a net margin of 24.04%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Exelixis will post 2.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Exelixis

In related news, Director Jack L. Wyszomierski sold 8,768 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.80, for a total transaction of $331,430.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 356,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,479,669. This represents a 2.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Patrick J. Haley sold 52,636 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.98, for a total transaction of $1,946,479.28. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 303,310 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,216,403.80. This represents a 14.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 140,343 shares of company stock valued at $5,177,234 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.85% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Exelixis

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Exelixis by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,429,252 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $979,994,000 after purchasing an additional 121,750 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management lifted its position in Exelixis by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 8,169,847 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $272,056,000 after purchasing an additional 67,470 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Exelixis by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,630,940 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $254,110,000 after purchasing an additional 708,312 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Exelixis by 308.1% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,975,241 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $132,376,000 after purchasing an additional 3,001,204 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Exelixis by 25.7% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,967,005 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $132,101,000 after purchasing an additional 810,857 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

About Exelixis

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.