Brokerages Set Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) Price Target at $59.56

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation, thirteen have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $59.44.

IONS has been the topic of a number of research reports. Citigroup lowered their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $67.00 to $64.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $47.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $60.00 to $45.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ IONS opened at $31.15 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $4.95 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.25 and a beta of 0.28. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a twelve month low of $30.23 and a twelve month high of $52.34. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $32.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $35.80. The company has a current ratio of 8.47, a quick ratio of 8.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.66) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.12) by $0.46. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 64.25% and a negative return on equity of 100.05%. The firm had revenue of $227.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $140.97 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.12 EPS. Ionis Pharmaceuticals’s revenue for the quarter was down 30.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Brett P. Monia sold 38,843 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.65, for a total value of $1,229,380.95. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 180,683 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,718,616.95. This represents a 17.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Eric Swayze sold 7,154 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.84, for a total value of $234,937.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 45,670 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,499,802.80. This trade represents a 13.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 111,956 shares of company stock worth $3,608,439 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital World Investors grew its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 46.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,465,413 shares of the company’s stock worth $400,831,000 after acquiring an additional 3,637,041 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at $59,948,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 9.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,472,539 shares of the company’s stock valued at $575,880,000 after purchasing an additional 1,416,781 shares during the last quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter worth about $20,801,000. Finally, Orbimed Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 21.2% in the 4th quarter. Orbimed Advisors LLC now owns 2,817,347 shares of the company’s stock worth $98,494,000 after buying an additional 492,900 shares during the last quarter. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.