Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Receives Buy Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) in a research note released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $60.00 target price on the stock.

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

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 2.8 %

Shares of IONS opened at $32.69 on Thursday. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $30.23 and a 12 month high of $52.34. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $33.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a current ratio of 8.91 and a quick ratio of 8.82. The stock has a market cap of $5.16 billion, a PE ratio of -13.40 and a beta of 0.34.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, Director Michael R. Hayden acquired 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $36.22 per share, with a total value of $181,100.00. Following 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 acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Brett P. Monia sold 33,445 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total transaction of $1,091,310.35. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 207,396 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,767,331.48. This trade represents a 13.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 110,609 shares of company stock worth $3,564,867 over the last ninety days. 2.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ionis Pharmaceuticals

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Nicollet Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Nicollet Investment Management Inc. now owns 20,402 shares of the company’s stock worth $817,000 after purchasing an additional 294 shares during the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank increased its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3.1% in the third quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 9,957 shares of the company’s stock worth $399,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 40.9% in the third quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 1,081 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 314 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. lifted its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 19,339 shares of the company’s stock valued at $676,000 after buying an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 5,865 shares of the company’s stock valued at $205,000 after acquiring an additional 363 shares during the period. 93.86% of the stock is owned by 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.