Brian Birchler Sells 8,000 Shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Stock

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) EVP Brian Birchler sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.17, for a total value of $609,360.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 48,826 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,719,076.42. The trade was a 14.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Brian Birchler also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, October 15th, Brian Birchler sold 12,425 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.23, for a total value of $897,457.75.
• On Tuesday, October 14th, Brian Birchler sold 11,475 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.03, for a total value of $826,544.25.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

NASDAQ IONS traded down $0.55 on Friday, reaching $73.55. The stock had a trading volume of 2,332,340 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,971,165. The stock has a market cap of $11.91 billion, a P/E ratio of -43.52 and a beta of 0.33. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 12-month low of $23.95 and a 12-month high of $76.78. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $66.49 and its 200 day moving average price is $47.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 2.86 and a current ratio of 2.87.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported ($0.80) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.15) by $0.35. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 26.45% and a negative return on equity of 45.29%. The business had revenue of $157.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $131.75 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.95) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.2% on a year-over-year basis. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in IONS. CWM LLC raised its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,488 shares of the company’s stock valued at $163,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 198.4% during the third quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 376 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares during the last quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. purchased a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Mather Group LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 44.2% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,341 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,000 after buying an additional 411 shares during the period. 93.86% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $70.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $45.00 to $65.00 in a report on Friday, September 26th. Guggenheim raised their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $81.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $83.65.

About Ionis Pharmaceuticals

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.