Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) Director Sells $2,262,960.00 in Stock

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) Director Joseph Wender sold 28,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.82, for a total transaction of $2,262,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 36,035 shares in the company, valued at $2,912,348.70. This represents a 43.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

NASDAQ:IONS traded up $0.53 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $81.84. 2,530,628 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,075,005. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $72.51 and its 200 day moving average price is $53.69. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 52-week low of $23.95 and a 52-week high of $83.09. The company has a market cap of $13.26 billion, a P/E ratio of -48.43 and a beta of 0.30. The company has a current ratio of 2.79, a quick ratio of 2.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported ($0.80) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.15) by $0.35. The firm had revenue of $156.72 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $131.75 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 44.26% and a negative net margin of 26.45%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.95) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd purchased a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter valued at approximately $447,000. BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd purchased a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,529,000. Alpine Global Management LLC boosted its stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 119.8% during the 3rd quarter. Alpine Global Management LLC now owns 55,900 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,657,000 after purchasing an additional 30,463 shares during the period. Tweedy Browne Co LLC grew its position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Tweedy Browne Co LLC now owns 2,901,216 shares of the company’s stock worth $189,798,000 after purchasing an additional 9,268 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Ionis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter valued at $293,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on IONS. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $40.00 to $70.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $43.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. HC Wainwright boosted their price objective on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $59.00 to $99.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.15.

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.