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 note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $60.00 price objective on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price suggests a potential upside of 85.60% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on IONS. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $65.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $82.00 to $77.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com downgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Friday, December 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ionis Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $60.00.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of IONS stock opened at $32.33 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $33.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $38.36. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $30.23 and a 12 month high of $52.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.63 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a current ratio of 8.91, a quick ratio of 8.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.66) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.12) by $0.46. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 111.15% and a negative net margin of 64.25%. The company had revenue of $227.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $140.97 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.12 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 30.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.5 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Michael R. Hayden bought 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were bought at an average price of $36.22 per share, with a total value of $181,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 35,219 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,275,632.18. This represents a 16.55 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Brett P. Monia sold 38,843 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.65, for a total value of $1,229,380.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 180,683 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,718,616.95. The trade was a 17.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 110,609 shares of company stock worth $3,564,867 over the last quarter. 2.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Nicollet Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 1.5% during the third quarter. Nicollet Investment Management Inc. now owns 20,402 shares of the company’s stock valued at $817,000 after buying an additional 294 shares during the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank boosted its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3.1% during the third quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 9,957 shares of the company’s stock valued at $399,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 40.9% during the third quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 1,081 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 314 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. boosted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 19,339 shares of the company’s stock worth $676,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 5,865 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,000 after purchasing an additional 363 shares during the last quarter. 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.