93,396 Shares in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $IONS Purchased by Globeflex Capital L P

Globeflex Capital L P purchased a new stake in Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 93,396 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,973,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of IONS. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 72.5% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 652,518 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,686,000 after purchasing an additional 274,310 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 659,435 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,895,000 after buying an additional 39,794 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth grew its position in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 30.1% during the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 9,832 shares of the company’s stock worth $297,000 after buying an additional 2,277 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth approximately $220,000. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals by 47.8% in the second quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 9,254 shares of the company’s stock worth $341,000 after buying an additional 2,991 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.86% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on IONS shares. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $130.00 to $110.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 10th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $111.00 target price on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals from $115.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Wolfe Research reaffirmed a “peer perform” rating on shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $94.15.

Insider Activity at Ionis Pharmaceuticals

In other Ionis Pharmaceuticals news, Director Michael R. Hayden purchased 5,000 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 31st. The shares were bought at an average cost of $51.60 per share, for a total transaction of $258,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 24,000 shares in the company, valued at $1,238,400. This represents a 26.32% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Brett P. Monia sold 50,000 shares of Ionis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.59, for a total transaction of $4,029,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 245,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,790,566.89. This trade represents a 16.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 233,163 shares of company stock valued at $18,316,551 in the last ninety days. 1.81% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

IONS stock opened at $59.74 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 7.89, a quick ratio of 7.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.07. The firm has a market cap of $9.93 billion, a P/E ratio of -17.27 and a beta of 0.41. Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 12-month low of $41.71 and a 12-month high of $86.74. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $64.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.08.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IONS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported ($0.69) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.08) by $0.39. The firm had revenue of $267.95 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $189.10 million. Ionis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 111.08% and a negative net margin of 64.76%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 40.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.70 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3.57 EPS for the current year.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of RNA-targeted therapies designed to modulate gene expression. The company’s proprietary antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) technology enables the selective binding of short synthetic strands of nucleic acids to messenger RNA (mRNA), thereby inhibiting or altering the production of disease-causing proteins. Ionis’ pipeline spans a range of therapeutic areas, including neurological disorders, cardiovascular conditions, metabolic diseases and rare genetic disorders.

Since its founding in 1989 by Dr.