Pictet Asset Management Holding SA Decreases Stock Holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS)

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA reduced its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) by 52.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 620,798 shares of the company’s stock after selling 682,703 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA’s holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals were worth $21,703,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of IONS. Norges Bank bought a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $59,948,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 9.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,472,539 shares of the company’s stock valued at $575,880,000 after acquiring an additional 1,416,781 shares in the last quarter. Baker BROS. Advisors LP purchased a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter worth $8,952,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 7.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,668,358 shares of the company’s stock valued at $106,922,000 after acquiring an additional 183,814 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sovran Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter valued at $5,617,000. 93.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $60.00 to $45.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Redburn Atlantic assumed coverage on Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Monday. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $39.00 target price for the company. Citigroup dropped their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $67.00 to $64.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $47.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.37.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 3.1 %

Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $30.17 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $32.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $35.63. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 52-week low of $29.61 and a 52-week high of $52.34. The company has a quick ratio of 8.82, a current ratio of 8.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12. The company has a market cap of $4.80 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.92 and a beta of 0.28.

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

Insider Transactions at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In related news, EVP Eric Swayze sold 7,154 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.84, for a total transaction of $234,937.36. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 45,670 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,499,802.80. The trade was a 13.54 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Brett P. Monia sold 33,445 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total value of $1,091,310.35. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 207,396 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,767,331.48. This represents a 13.89 % 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 valued at $3,608,439 over the last quarter. 2.71% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.