Mizuho Begins Coverage on Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS)

Investment analysts at Mizuho started coverage on shares of Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm set an “outperform” rating and a $60.00 price target on the medical research company’s stock. Mizuho’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 36.67% from the stock’s current price.

EXAS has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Guggenheim set a $60.00 price target on Exact Sciences and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 28th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Exact Sciences in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Bank of America dropped their price target on Exact Sciences from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Scotiabank increased their price target on Exact Sciences from $70.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Exact Sciences in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Exact Sciences has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.25.

Exact Sciences Trading Down 3.5 %

Exact Sciences stock traded down $1.60 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $43.90. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 430,683 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,605,748. The company has a 50 day moving average of $47.38 and a 200-day moving average of $56.14. The stock has a market cap of $8.15 billion, a PE ratio of -7.88 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 1.93 and a current ratio of 2.15. Exact Sciences has a one year low of $39.97 and a one year high of $73.81.

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The medical research company reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.29) by $0.23. Exact Sciences had a negative return on equity of 5.29% and a negative net margin of 37.29%. The company had revenue of $713.42 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $701.45 million. On average, research analysts anticipate that Exact Sciences will post -0.58 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Exact Sciences

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EXAS. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its stake in Exact Sciences by 24.5% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 9,433 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $643,000 after buying an additional 1,854 shares during the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Exact Sciences in the third quarter worth about $223,000. Stifel Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 2.3% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 80,961 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $5,515,000 after purchasing an additional 1,825 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 12.4% in the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 51,437 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,504,000 after purchasing an additional 5,664 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp raised its stake in shares of Exact Sciences by 43.5% in the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 9,256 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $630,000 after purchasing an additional 2,806 shares during the last quarter. 88.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Exact Sciences Company 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.