Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) Hits New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $38.00 to $41.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Exelixis traded as high as $37.14 and last traded at $37.04, with a volume of 1317363 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $35.65.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Exelixis from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. HC Wainwright upped their price objective on shares of Exelixis from $29.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Exelixis from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $36.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Exelixis from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective on Exelixis from $27.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $35.50.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Jeffrey Hessekiel sold 25,000 shares of Exelixis stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.39, for a total transaction of $709,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 580,325 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,475,426.75. This trade represents a 4.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Dana Aftab sold 1,162 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.40, for a total transaction of $36,486.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 498,945 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,666,873. This trade represents a 0.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 314,736 shares of company stock worth $10,849,110. Corporate insiders own 2.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Exelixis

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of EXEL. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its holdings in shares of Exelixis by 45.3% during the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 90,211 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,031,000 after purchasing an additional 28,126 shares during the last quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Exelixis by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 27,102,500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $608,993,000 after buying an additional 424,000 shares in the last quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in Exelixis by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 469,940 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $12,195,000 after acquiring an additional 34,875 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its position in Exelixis by 124.0% in the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 1,790,855 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $46,473,000 after acquiring an additional 991,494 shares in the last quarter. Finally, China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Exelixis by 60.3% in the third quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 54,863 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,424,000 after acquiring an additional 20,641 shares during the last quarter. 85.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Exelixis Stock Down 1.9 %

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $34.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $29.14. The company has a market capitalization of $10.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 0.53.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The biotechnology company reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $539.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $490.31 million. Exelixis had a net margin of 22.43% and a return on equity of 20.99%. Exelixis’s revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.10 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Exelixis, Inc. will post 1.7 EPS for the current year.

Exelixis Company Profile

Exelixis, Inc, an oncology company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of new medicines for difficult-to-treat cancers in the United States. The company offers CABOMETYX tablets for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma who received prior anti-angiogenic therapy; and COMETRIQ capsules for the treatment of progressive and metastatic medullary thyroid cancer.