Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have issued a hold recommendation, nine have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $59.54.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on IONS shares. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 24th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $85.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, Director Joseph Klein III sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.71, for a total transaction of $256,260.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 16,346 shares in the company, valued at approximately $698,137.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Joseph Klein III sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.71, for a total transaction of $256,260.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,346 shares in the company, valued at approximately $698,137.66. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Joseph Baroldi sold 4,006 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were 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 $816,649.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 10,393 shares of company stock valued at $440,127. 2.65% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in IONS. Pingora Partners LLC bought a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Mather Group LLC. bought a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the first quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners acquired a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, Peoples Bank KS acquired a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ IONS opened at $39.47 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $42.62 and a two-hundred day moving average of $46.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.18, a quick ratio of 5.83 and a current ratio of 5.90. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 52-week low of $34.99 and a 52-week high of $54.44. The stock has a market cap of $5.75 billion, a PE ratio of -15.42 and a beta of 0.41.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.98) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.10) by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $119.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $131.42 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 46.32% and a negative return on equity of 90.29%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.87) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Ionis Pharmaceuticals

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.