Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) Shares Sold by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) by 19.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,049,256 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 254,631 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.57% of Exact Sciences worth $71,475,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vestor Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Exact Sciences during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $46,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new stake in Exact Sciences in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new stake in Exact Sciences in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Exact Sciences by 92.4% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 708 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares during the period. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Exact Sciences in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $49,000. 88.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Craig Hallum lowered their target price on Exact Sciences from $82.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup lowered their target price on Exact Sciences from $80.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on Exact Sciences from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Exact Sciences from $82.00 to $67.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Exact Sciences from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.06.

Exact Sciences Stock Performance

EXAS opened at $51.48 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $9.53 billion, a PE ratio of -44.00 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 2.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $66.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $56.51. Exact Sciences Co. has a fifty-two week low of $40.62 and a fifty-two week high of $79.62.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The medical research company reported ($0.21) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.20) by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $708.66 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.80 million. Exact Sciences had a negative return on equity of 6.17% and a negative net margin of 7.95%. The firm’s revenue was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Exact Sciences Co. will post -0.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Exact Sciences

In other news, EVP Brian Baranick sold 929 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total value of $65,030.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 13,687 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $958,090. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.36% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.