Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS)

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Exact Sciences Co. (NASDAQ:EXAS) by 35.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 95,827 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 24,992 shares during the quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Exact Sciences were worth $5,385,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Huntington National Bank boosted its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 838.1% during the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 394 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 352 shares during the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Exact Sciences during the third quarter worth approximately $34,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in Exact Sciences in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $35,000. Vestor Capital LLC acquired a new position in Exact Sciences in the 3rd quarter valued at $46,000. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Exact Sciences during the 3rd quarter worth $47,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.82% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Exact Sciences news, CEO Kevin T. Conroy bought 19,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $51.35 per share, for a total transaction of $1,001,325.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,074,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $55,159,707.85. The trade was a 1.85 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.36% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Exact Sciences Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EXAS opened at $56.50 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -48.29 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 2.12 and a quick ratio of 1.93. Exact Sciences Co. has a 1-year low of $40.62 and a 1-year high of $79.62. The business has a 50-day moving average of $58.09 and a 200-day moving average of $58.56.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The medical research company reported ($0.21) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.20) by ($0.01). Exact Sciences had a negative net margin of 7.95% and a negative return on equity of 6.17%. The firm had revenue of $708.66 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $716.80 million. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Exact Sciences Co. will post -1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EXAS has been the subject of several analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on Exact Sciences from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Benchmark cut their price objective on shares of Exact Sciences from $67.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Exact Sciences from $82.00 to $67.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Exact Sciences from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Exact Sciences in a report on Thursday, September 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Exact Sciences has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $72.94.

Exact Sciences Profile

Exact Sciences Corporation provides cancer screening and diagnostic test products in the United States and internationally. The company offers Cologuard, a non-invasive stool-based DNA screening test to detect DNA and hemoglobin biomarkers associated with colorectal cancer and pre-cancer. It also provides Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score Test; Oncotype DX Breast DCIS Score Test; Oncotype DX Colon Recurrence Score Test; OncoExTra Test for tumor profiling for patients with advanced, metastatic, refractory, relapsed, or recurrent cancer; and Covid-19 testing services.