Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Earns “Peer Perform” Rating from Wolfe Research

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS)‘s stock had its “peer perform” rating reiterated by Wolfe Research in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 10th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $115.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 10th. Raymond James Financial set a $87.00 price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $130.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Eighteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ionis Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $96.05.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Shares of IONS opened at $54.73 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $74.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $76.71. The company has a quick ratio of 4.09, a current ratio of 4.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.75. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a twelve month low of $40.03 and a twelve month high of $86.74. The company has a market cap of $9.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -26.44 and a beta of 0.36.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The company reported ($0.56) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.85) by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $246.09 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $195.56 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 58.65% and a negative net margin of 30.91%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 86.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.93) EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, EVP Holly B. Kordasiewicz sold 362 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.30, for a total transaction of $30,516.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 22,096 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,862,692.80. This represents a 1.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP C Frank Bennett sold 5,536 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.58, for a total value of $462,698.88. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 75,018 shares in the company, valued at $6,270,004.44. This represents a 6.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 233,163 shares of company stock worth $18,316,551 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 79.1% in the 2nd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 383,211 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,385,000 after buying an additional 169,300 shares in the last quarter. Victrix Investment Advisors acquired a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter valued at about $270,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 21.5% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 40,927 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,245,000 after acquiring an additional 7,254 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 22.8% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,168 shares of the company’s stock valued at $172,000 after purchasing an additional 402 shares during the period. Finally, Harbor Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter valued at about $112,000. 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.