Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) Given Buy Rating at Benchmark

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by equities researchers at Benchmark in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $65.00 target price on the medical research company’s stock. Benchmark’s price target suggests a potential upside of 12.28% from the stock’s current price.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Exact Sciences from $80.00 to $60.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Exact Sciences from $70.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Exact Sciences from $85.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Exact Sciences in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Exact Sciences from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Exact Sciences currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $72.94.

Exact Sciences Stock Performance

NASDAQ:EXAS traded up $1.39 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $57.89. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 179,513 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,671,731. Exact Sciences 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 $10.71 billion, a P/E ratio of -49.48 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $57.82 and its 200-day moving average is $58.88.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The medical research company reported ($0.21) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.20) by ($0.01). Exact Sciences had a negative return on equity of 6.17% and a negative net margin of 7.95%. The company had revenue of $708.66 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.80 million. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Exact Sciences will post -1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Kevin T. Conroy bought 19,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $51.35 per share, for a total transaction of $1,001,325.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly 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 position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.36% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Groupama Asset Managment purchased a new stake in Exact Sciences in the third quarter valued at $821,000. Sculptor Capital LP purchased a new stake in Exact Sciences in the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,819,000. Samlyn Capital LLC acquired a new position in Exact Sciences in the second quarter valued at about $30,426,000. Armistice Capital LLC boosted its stake in Exact Sciences by 91.6% during the second quarter. Armistice Capital LLC now owns 1,400,086 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $59,154,000 after buying an additional 669,438 shares during the period. Finally, ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC purchased a new position in Exact Sciences during the third quarter worth about $28,608,000. 88.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Exact Sciences Company Profile

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.