Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Earns “Buy” Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) in a research report released on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a $60.00 price objective on the stock.

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on IONS. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $60.00 to $45.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $47.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $56.72.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 3.8 %

NASDAQ IONS opened at $26.71 on Tuesday. Ionis Pharmaceuticals has a fifty-two week low of $23.95 and a fifty-two week high of $52.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12, a quick ratio of 8.82 and a current ratio of 8.47. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $34.70. The stock has a market cap of $4.25 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.79 and a beta of 0.29.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.66) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.12) by $0.46. The company had revenue of $227.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $140.97 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 100.05% and a negative net margin of 64.25%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 30.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.12 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Ionis Pharmaceuticals will post -3.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In related news, CEO Brett P. Monia sold 33,445 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.63, for a total value of $1,091,310.35. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 207,396 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,767,331.48. This trade represents a 13.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Patrick R. O’neil sold 1,207 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.35, for a total transaction of $39,046.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 56,245 shares in the company, valued at $1,819,525.75. This represents a 2.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 111,956 shares of company stock valued at $3,608,439 in the last ninety days. 2.71% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Xponance Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 19,339 shares of the company’s stock worth $676,000 after buying an additional 318 shares during the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank increased its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 10,292 shares of the company’s stock worth $360,000 after buying an additional 335 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 5,865 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,000 after buying an additional 363 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 21,826 shares of the company’s stock worth $763,000 after buying an additional 373 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina increased its holdings in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 68,803 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,405,000 after buying an additional 440 shares during the last quarter. 93.86% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

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.