Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Exact Sciences Call Options (NASDAQ:EXAS)

Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors purchased 16,937 call options on the company. This is an increase of 291% compared to the average volume of 4,328 call options.

Insider Activity at Exact Sciences

In other Exact Sciences news, CEO Kevin T. Conroy sold 14,791 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.43, for a total transaction of $908,611.13. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,224,357 shares in the company, valued at $75,212,250.51. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Kevin T. Conroy sold 14,791 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.43, for a total value of $908,611.13. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,224,357 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $75,212,250.51. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Sarah Condella sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total transaction of $140,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 71,787 shares in the company, valued at $5,025,090. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 69,113 shares of company stock valued at $4,165,273 over the last three months. 1.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Exact Sciences

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of EXAS. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 16.5% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,760 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $403,000 after acquiring an additional 817 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Exact Sciences in the first quarter valued at approximately $742,000. Panagora Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,281 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $509,000 after buying an additional 323 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Exact Sciences by 13.5% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 448,640 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $31,377,000 after buying an additional 53,454 shares during the period. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its holdings in Exact Sciences by 143.5% during the 1st quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 22,230 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,585,000 after acquiring an additional 13,102 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EXAS has been the subject of several research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their target price on Exact Sciences from $100.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Benchmark upgraded shares of Exact Sciences from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $91.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. TheStreet cut shares of Exact Sciences from a “c-” rating to a “d+” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Exact Sciences in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Exact Sciences in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Exact Sciences currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $97.44.

Exact Sciences Price Performance

Shares of Exact Sciences stock opened at $63.22 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.32, a quick ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $63.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.11. Exact Sciences has a 12 month low of $56.05 and a 12 month high of $100.77.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The medical research company reported ($0.27) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.53) by $0.26. The company had revenue of $646.89 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $638.83 million. Exact Sciences had a negative net margin of 8.17% and a negative return on equity of 6.60%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.72) EPS. Research analysts expect that Exact Sciences will post -0.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.