Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) Receives $58.43 Consensus PT from Brokerages

Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $58.43.

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on IONS. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $44.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, June 14th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Monday, June 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $85.00 to $82.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 8th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, EVP Joseph Baroldi sold 4,006 shares of the company’s 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 directly owns 19,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $816,649.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, EVP Joseph Baroldi sold 4,006 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $816,649.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Klein III sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.71, for a total value of $256,260.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 16,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $698,137.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in IONS. UBS Group AG raised its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 17.5% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 109,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,946,000 after purchasing an additional 16,209 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 251.4% in the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 126,736 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,749,000 after buying an additional 90,667 shares in the last quarter. Mariner LLC raised its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3.0% during the third quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 17,888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $811,000 after acquiring an additional 514 shares during the period. EAM Investors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter valued at about $1,327,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 2.9% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 690,724 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,331,000 after acquiring an additional 19,646 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 6.8 %

NASDAQ:IONS opened at $44.68 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.52 billion, a P/E ratio of -16.73 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.15, a current ratio of 7.37 and a quick ratio of 7.28. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a one year low of $35.95 and a one year high of $54.44. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $44.87.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.98) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.10) by $0.12. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 107.64% and a negative net margin of 49.49%. The firm had revenue of $119.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $131.42 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.87) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Company 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.