Ionis Pharmaceuticals’ (IONS) Buy Rating Reiterated at TD Cowen

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by analysts at TD Cowen in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $108.00 price objective on the stock. TD Cowen’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 46.96% from the stock’s previous close.

IONS has been the topic of several other reports. Citigroup began coverage on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Monday, May 18th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $115.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $106.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $111.00 price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $100.90.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

IONS stock traded up $0.21 on Monday, hitting $73.49. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 328,342 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,045,073. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $74.94 and a two-hundred day moving average of $77.76. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 1 year low of $34.78 and a 1 year high of $86.74. The stock has a market cap of $12.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -35.47 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a current ratio of 4.10, a quick ratio of 4.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.75.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported ($0.56) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.85) by $0.29. The company had revenue of $246.09 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $195.57 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 30.91% and a negative return on equity of 58.65%. Ionis Pharmaceuticals’s revenue was up 86.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.93) EPS. Equities analysts predict that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In other news, Director Spencer R. Berthelsen sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.67, for a total transaction of $605,360.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 156,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,805,503.71. This represents a 4.88% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Eugene Schneider sold 5,812 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.97, for a total transaction of $412,477.64. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 63,890 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,534,273.30. This trade represents a 8.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 41,052 shares of company stock worth $3,043,969. Company insiders own 1.81% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ionis Pharmaceuticals

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in IONS. Jain Global LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3,037.4% during the 3rd quarter. Jain Global LLC now owns 225,739 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,768,000 after acquiring an additional 218,544 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 248.3% during the 4th quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 217,897 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,238,000 after acquiring an additional 155,334 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 230.4% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 878,155 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,449,000 after acquiring an additional 612,362 shares during the period. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 161.3% during the 3rd quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 155,790 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,192,000 after acquiring an additional 96,164 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 548.7% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 33,409 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,643,000 after acquiring an additional 28,259 shares during the period. 93.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of RNA-targeted therapies designed to modulate gene expression. The company’s proprietary antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) technology enables the selective binding of short synthetic strands of nucleic acids to messenger RNA (mRNA), thereby inhibiting or altering the production of disease-causing proteins. Ionis’ pipeline spans a range of therapeutic areas, including neurological disorders, cardiovascular conditions, metabolic diseases and rare genetic disorders.

Since its founding in 1989 by Dr.