Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Given Outperform Rating at Royal Bank of Canada

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $70.00 price objective on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target points to a potential upside of 117.46% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $65.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com cut Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $60.00 to $45.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $82.00 to $77.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.76.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ IONS traded up $0.38 during trading on Thursday, hitting $32.19. The company had a trading volume of 580,843 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,612,561. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.08 billion, a P/E ratio of -13.22 and a beta of 0.34. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $30.23 and a 12 month high of $52.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 8.82 and a current ratio of 8.91.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last announced its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $227.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $140.97 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 88.98% and a negative net margin of 44.58%. 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. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, EVP Eric Swayze sold 7,154 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,499,802.80. The trade was a 13.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Brett P. Monia sold 38,843 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.65, for a total value of $1,229,380.95. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 180,683 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,718,616.95. This represents a 17.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 110,609 shares of company stock worth $3,564,867. 2.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ionis Pharmaceuticals

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 7.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,668,358 shares of the company’s stock worth $106,922,000 after purchasing an additional 183,814 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 967.2% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 141,917 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,961,000 after acquiring an additional 128,619 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 222.5% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 23,927 shares of the company’s stock worth $836,000 after acquiring an additional 16,508 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 8.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,443,020 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,807,000 after purchasing an additional 114,914 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 650,779 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,070,000 after purchasing an additional 77,909 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

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.