Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Purchases 12,912 Shares of Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) by 130.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 22,801 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 12,912 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Exact Sciences were worth $1,281,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of EXAS. Huntington National Bank raised its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 838.1% in the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 394 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 352 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Exact Sciences in the 3rd quarter valued at $34,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Exact Sciences during the 3rd quarter valued at about $35,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Exact Sciences during the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Finally, Vestor Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Exact Sciences during the 3rd quarter valued at about $46,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.82% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Exact Sciences news, CEO Kevin T. Conroy bought 19,500 shares of Exact Sciences stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were bought at an average price of $51.35 per share, with a total value of $1,001,325.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 1,074,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,159,707.85. This trade represents a 1.85 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 1.36% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on EXAS. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Exact Sciences in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup cut their target price on Exact Sciences from $80.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on shares of Exact Sciences in a research note on Monday, January 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Exact Sciences from $75.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Barclays began coverage on shares of Exact Sciences in a research report on Thursday. They set an “overweight” rating and a $70.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Exact Sciences currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $72.76.

Exact Sciences Stock Performance

Shares of Exact Sciences stock opened at $55.13 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $57.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $59.32. Exact Sciences Co. has a fifty-two week low of $40.62 and a fifty-two week high of $79.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 2.12 and a quick ratio of 1.93. The firm has a market cap of $10.20 billion, a P/E ratio of -47.12 and a beta of 1.24.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last released 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). Exact Sciences had a negative net margin of 7.95% and a negative return on equity of 6.17%. The firm had revenue of $708.66 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.80 million. Exact Sciences’s quarterly revenue was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Exact Sciences Co. will post -1.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Exact Sciences

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.