Natixis Advisors LLC Increases Holdings in Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL)

Natixis Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL) by 26.2% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 29,113 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,051 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Exelixis were worth $755,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EXEL. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new stake in Exelixis in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Park Place Capital Corp purchased a new stake in Exelixis in the second quarter valued at $45,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Exelixis by 107.9% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,006 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 1,041 shares during the period. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in Exelixis in the third quarter valued at $61,000. Finally, Essex Investment Management Co. LLC purchased a new stake in Exelixis in the third quarter valued at $74,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EXEL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Exelixis from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $29.00 price objective on shares of Exelixis in a report on Friday, October 11th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Exelixis from $29.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on Exelixis from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group initiated coverage on Exelixis in a report on Thursday, September 19th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $30.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Exelixis presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.44.

Insider Buying and Selling at Exelixis

In other Exelixis news, EVP Jeffrey Hessekiel sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.38, for a total transaction of $659,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 605,325 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,968,473.50. This represents a 3.97 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Dana Aftab sold 96,986 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total value of $3,394,510.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 498,945 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,463,075. This trade represents a 16.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 279,736 shares of company stock valued at $9,308,410 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 2.85% of the company’s stock.

Exelixis Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ EXEL opened at $35.93 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $30.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.83. The stock has a market cap of $10.26 billion, a PE ratio of 23.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 0.51. Exelixis, Inc. has a 52-week low of $19.20 and a 52-week high of $36.73.

Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The biotechnology company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $539.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $490.31 million. Exelixis had a return on equity of 20.99% and a net margin of 22.43%. The firm’s revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.10 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Exelixis, Inc. will post 1.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Exelixis Profile

Exelixis, Inc, an oncology company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of new medicines for difficult-to-treat cancers in the United States. The company offers CABOMETYX tablets for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma who received prior anti-angiogenic therapy; and COMETRIQ capsules for the treatment of progressive and metastatic medullary thyroid cancer.