Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) PT Raised to $37.00 at The Goldman Sachs Group

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) had its price objective raised by The Goldman Sachs Group from $33.00 to $37.00 in a research report report published on Friday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has a sell rating on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Ionis Pharmaceuticals from an underperform rating to a market perform rating and set a $44.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 14th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. BMO Capital Markets cut Ionis Pharmaceuticals from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $67.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Friday. Leerink Partnrs raised Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $45.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ionis Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $60.68.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

IONS stock traded up $0.29 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $47.29. 280,303 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,215,049. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 52-week low of $35.95 and a 52-week high of $54.44. The stock has a market cap of $6.90 billion, a P/E ratio of -17.60 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a current ratio of 7.37, a quick ratio of 7.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.15. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $44.94 and its 200 day moving average is $44.31.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($0.45) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.92) by $0.47. The business had revenue of $225.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $152.35 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 44.90% and a negative return on equity of 109.65%. The company’s revenue was up 19.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.9 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, Director Joseph Klein III sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $600,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 16,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $817,300. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 2.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of IONS. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 162.2% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,616,978 shares of the company’s stock valued at $233,573,000 after buying an additional 2,856,353 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 4th quarter worth approximately $59,288,000. Groupama Asset Managment purchased a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 4th quarter worth approximately $18,068,000. First Turn Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter worth approximately $18,044,000. Finally, C WorldWide Group Holding A S acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter worth approximately $15,177,000. 93.86% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.