Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Rating Increased to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Saturday morning.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on IONS. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $82.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $100.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Leerink Partners lifted their target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Raymond James Financial assumed coverage on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday, April 10th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $104.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $99.35.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 0.7%

Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $75.28 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.75, a quick ratio of 3.81 and a current ratio of 4.10. The firm has a market cap of $12.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -36.37 and a beta of 0.38. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 1 year low of $31.66 and a 1 year high of $86.74. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $75.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $77.31.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported ($0.56) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.85) by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $246.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $195.57 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 30.91% and a negative return on equity of 58.65%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 86.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.93) earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -4.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Brian Birchler sold 973 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.04, for a total value of $73,013.92. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 67,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,065,200. The trade was a 1.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, EVP Kyle Jenne sold 4,902 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.17, for a total transaction of $368,483.34. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 23,713 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,782,506.21. This represents a 17.13% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold 751,532 shares of company stock worth $57,680,173 in the last 90 days. 2.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 41.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,961,299 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,420,918,000 after acquiring an additional 5,238,571 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,148,849 shares of the company’s stock worth $249,158,000 after acquiring an additional 82,560 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 9.5% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,987,840 shares of the company’s stock worth $236,370,000 after acquiring an additional 258,155 shares during the last quarter. Tweedy Browne Co LLC lifted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Tweedy Browne Co LLC now owns 2,901,216 shares of the company’s stock worth $189,798,000 after acquiring an additional 9,268 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baker BROS. Advisors LP lifted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 216.1% during the 4th quarter. Baker BROS. Advisors LP now owns 1,791,841 shares of the company’s stock worth $141,753,000 after acquiring an additional 1,225,043 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

About Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of RNA-targeted therapies designed to modulate gene expression. The company’s proprietary antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) technology enables the selective binding of short synthetic strands of nucleic acids to messenger RNA (mRNA), thereby inhibiting or altering the production of disease-causing proteins. Ionis’ pipeline spans a range of therapeutic areas, including neurological disorders, cardiovascular conditions, metabolic diseases and rare genetic disorders.

Since its founding in 1989 by Dr.