State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Purchases 4,586 Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D increased its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) by 5.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 81,847 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,586 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D owned about 0.06% of Ionis Pharmaceuticals worth $4,141,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 27,011 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,366,000 after purchasing an additional 3,200 shares during the period. Grandfield & Dodd LLC lifted its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Grandfield & Dodd LLC now owns 33,104 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,675,000 after acquiring an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. abrdn plc purchased a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at about $6,901,000. Finally, HealthInvest Partners AB purchased a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,226,000. Institutional investors own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on IONS shares. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Bank of America upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $52.00 to $62.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ionis Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $56.08.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:IONS opened at $41.59 on Friday. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 52-week low of $34.32 and a 52-week high of $54.44. The business’s 50 day moving average is $43.33 and its 200 day moving average is $47.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.18, a current ratio of 5.90 and a quick ratio of 5.83.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.78) by $0.72. The company had revenue of $325.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $176.01 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 90.29% and a negative net margin of 46.32%. Ionis Pharmaceuticals’s revenue was up 113.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.37) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Joseph Baroldi sold 4,006 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.60, for a total transaction of $166,649.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 19,631 shares in the company, valued at approximately $816,649.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Joseph Baroldi sold 4,006 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.60, for a total transaction of $166,649.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 19,631 shares in the company, valued at approximately $816,649.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Eric Swayze sold 1,907 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.56, for a total value of $94,510.92. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 34,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,701,097.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 42,699 shares of company stock worth $2,104,091 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 2.65% of the company’s stock.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Profile

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc discovers and develops RNA-targeted therapeutics in the United States. The company offers SPINRAZA for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in pediatric and adult patients; TEGSEDI, an antisense injection for the treatment of polyneuropathy caused by hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis in adults; and WAYLIVRA, an antisense medicine for treatment for familial chylomicronemia syndrome (FCS) and familial partial lipodystrophy.