Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Earns Buy Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $60.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 46.59% from the company’s previous close.

IONS has been the subject of a number of other research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Wolfe Research raised shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $57.67.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of IONS opened at $40.93 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.18, a current ratio of 5.90 and a quick ratio of 5.83. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a one year low of $34.79 and a one year high of $54.44. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $46.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.97 billion, a PE ratio of -15.99 and a beta of 0.41.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.98) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.10) by $0.12. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 46.32% and a negative return on equity of 90.29%. The business had revenue of $119.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $131.42 million. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.87) earnings per share. Ionis Pharmaceuticals’s quarterly revenue was down 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Joseph Baroldi sold 4,006 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.60, for a total value of $166,649.60. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 19,631 shares in the company, valued at $816,649.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Joseph Klein III sold 6,000 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.71, for a total transaction of $256,260.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 16,346 shares in the company, valued at approximately $698,137.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Joseph Baroldi sold 4,006 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.60, for a total transaction of $166,649.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 19,631 shares in the company, valued at approximately $816,649.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 10,393 shares of company stock worth $440,127. 2.65% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. HealthInvest Partners AB purchased a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter worth $1,226,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,242,307 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,351,000 after acquiring an additional 43,087 shares during the last quarter. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter valued at $3,158,000. Trexquant Investment LP lifted its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 75.2% during the 3rd quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 183,349 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,317,000 after buying an additional 78,724 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter valued at $9,329,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

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.