Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Price Target Lowered to $45.00 at BMO Capital Markets

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) had its target price trimmed by BMO Capital Markets from $60.00 to $45.00 in a research note released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a market perform rating on the stock.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on IONS. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com downgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $65.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.00.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Up 2.8 %

IONS stock opened at $32.69 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $5.16 billion, a P/E ratio of -13.40 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 has a twelve month low of $30.23 and a twelve month high of $52.34. The company’s 50 day moving average is $33.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.46.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.66) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.12) by $0.46. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 44.58% and a negative return on equity of 88.98%. The firm had revenue of $227.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $140.97 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.12 EPS. Ionis Pharmaceuticals’s revenue for the quarter was down 30.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, EVP Eric Swayze sold 7,154 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.84, for a total transaction of $234,937.36. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 45,670 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,499,802.80. The trade was a 13.54 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Michael R. Hayden purchased 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The stock was bought at an average price of $36.22 per share, with a total value of $181,100.00. Following the acquisition, 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 disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 110,609 shares of company stock worth $3,564,867. Company insiders own 2.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ionis Pharmaceuticals

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 46.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,465,413 shares of the company’s stock valued at $400,831,000 after buying an additional 3,637,041 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 4th quarter worth approximately $59,948,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 9.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,472,539 shares of the company’s stock worth $575,880,000 after acquiring an additional 1,416,781 shares during the period. Vestal Point Capital LP purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $20,801,000. Finally, Orbimed Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 21.2% during the fourth quarter. Orbimed Advisors LLC now owns 2,817,347 shares of the company’s stock worth $98,494,000 after purchasing an additional 492,900 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.